The Hall of Fame catcher renowned as much for his dizzying malapropisms as his unmatched 10 World Series championships with the New York Yankees, died Tuesday. He was 90.
Berra, who filled baseball's record book as well as ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations,'' died of natural causes at his home in New Jersey, according to Dave Kaplan, the director of the Yogi Berra Museum.
Berra played in more World Series games than any other major leaguer, and was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player.
For many, though, he was even better known for all those amusing ''Yogi-isms.'' Short, squat and with a homely mug, Berra was a Yankees great who helped the team reach 14 World Series during his 18 seasons in the Bronx. Berra served on a gunboat supporting the D-Day invasion in 1944 and played for the Yankees from 1946-63. His teammates included fellow Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. He was a fan favorite, especially with children, and the cartoon character Yogi Bear was named after him. In 1956, Berra caught the only perfect game in World Series history and after the last out leaped into pitcher Don Larsen's arms. The famous moment is still often replayed on baseball broadcasts. Berra, who played in 15 straight All-Star Games, never earned more than $65,000 a season. He died on the same date, Sept. 22, as his big league debut 69 years earlier.
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"Listen up! I have nothing to say, and I am only going to say it once."
---Yogi Berra
He was truly one of the greats, not only for his athletic prowess and ability to play baseball, but also for his zen-like mental prowess and ability to play with our language. When I think of Yogi Berra, I immediately think of Ludwig Wittgenstein's statement "Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt" in the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, § 5.6 (1922). The limits of language may be the limits of logic, and language may constitute the limits of our thinkable world, but Yogi Berra danced on the edges of those limits, and he often tripped and fell through to the other side. In doing so, he expanded those limits for all of us. He once said, "It gets late early here." Now that he is gone, it will get late earlier for all of us. He will be missed.
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