Baseball legend Yogi Berra dies aged 90

Old Timers’ Day won’t be the same, but his presence will still be felt, every time a golf cart carrying Whitey Ford passes by or David Cone takes the field as highlights of his Yogi Berra Day flawless game play in the background.

Berra was grazed on the shoulder by fire off the coast of France on what he called a “rocketboat”, but he declined a Purple Heart. Like researchers found with Italians in St. Louis 75 years ago, Latino immigrants have low crime rates.

Berra, a Hall of Fame catcher, manager, master of the malaprop and bona fide New York icon, died Tuesday night at the age of 90.

Berra had other nicknames besides Yogi.

Berra then went on to a successful second career coaching and managing, bringing the Yankees, New York Mets and Houston Astros under his wing, posts that allowed him to give full expression to his unmatched way with words. Off the field, his wit and humor have made him a unique and ubiquitous figure in American culture. “If there”™s a fork in the road, take it.”™ So I did.”.

Florida resident Peter England said, “We had made plans to come to Cooperstown”.

“I don’t know”, he said.

David Maraniss, in his biography of the Pirates’ Roberto Clemente, the first Puerto Rican superstar, notes that as late as 1971, Clemente’s 17th season, one sportswriter still quoted him in phonetic English: “Eef I have my good arm thee ball gets there a leetle quicker”. “All those World Series, all those championships – those numbers that you look at, you’ll never see them again”.

Then he grew emotional.

“It all settled down but there were reporters on the bus in those days, so we couldn’t sweep it under the rug”. For many, it was impossible to say his name without smiling.

The 18-year-old US Navy enlistee, thinking it sounded less boring than the tiresome training he was doing in 1944, volunteered for service on what he thought an officer had called “rocket ships”. “Regardless of who you are”, said Krokondelas. I didn’t mind”, and besides, sometimes “we got to eat with the WAVES (women sailors). “We didn’t know any better” – and an impish smile. But Steinbrenner fired Berra through an emissary rather than in person, leading to a rift between the two men that lasted almost 14 years.

“Jackie was a great man, Jackie was my friend”, Berra said, but Robinson was flat-out wrong about the steal of home in the 1953 World Series.

“It was something I needed to hear and it was great hearing it from Yogi,” said Rodriguez, who several times referenced Berra”™s 10 World Series titles and propensity for performing well at the time of year. The umpire said otherwise. He was a Hall of Famer, a three-time MVP, a 10-time champion, an 18-time All-Star, a war hero, husband, father, grandfather, humanitarian, and wisecracking philosophe.

And no matter how casual those visits were to Berra, to the neighborhood it was an event. Doby would come over to Berra’s house and they would reminisce until Berra’s wife, Carmen, started finding things for him to do. That’s when Scott realized someone should negotiate on behalf of athletes to get them the money they deserved.

Londoners look at the Mets’ Bartolo Colon, see an overweight, drug-tarnished 42-year-old and wonder how he could still have a spot in America’s national game. “That was his gift to so many of us, and why people always seemed to gravitate toward him”.

“You think about the numbers Yogi put up, the rings that he’s worn and the celebrations that he’s been part of, you would have never known”, Girardi said.