Sports

Yogi Berra, 1925-2015

Bob CollinsBob Collins Sep 23, 2015
10
File-New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra poses at spring training in Florida, in an undated file photo. Berra, the Yankees Hall of Fame catcher has died. He was 90. (AP Photo/File)

And now, Yogi’s gone.

I’ve said it before: Nothing makes you feel older than when the baseball heroes of your youth die.

The last remaining player on some of the greatest New York Yankees teams of all time — no other player may ever win 10 World Series championships again — has died at age 90.

How many players in baseball are identified by just their first name other than players like Yogi or Kirby or Mickey?

If you’ve ever said, “it ain’t over ’til it’s over” you can thank Berra. He coined the term. “If you come to a fork in the road, take it” was his too. “You can observe a lot just by watching”? Yogi.

He even had a popular cartoon character named after him.

Berra is the last link to a bygone era in baseball, but also in life. Like many players of his day, he went to war. And for Berra, that meant an appointment with Utah Beach.

At the height of his baseball career, Yogi Berra made $65,000, a fortune in 1961.

Hall of Fame pitcher Whitey Ford, left, helps former teammate and Hall of Famer catcher Yogi Berra as Berra is introduced during the 68th annual Old Timers Day prior to the Baltimore Orioles baseball game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in New York, Sunday, June 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

He later became manager of the Yankees, was fired by George Steinbrenner, and refused to set foot in Yankee Stadium for years afterward. Steinbrenner didn’t even have the guts to fire Berra in person.

They reconciled in 1999.

“Where do you want to be buried when you die?” his wife is said to have once asked Yogi.

“I don’t know. Surprise me,” he said.