#104 Yogi Berra

#104 Yogi Berra

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"His Walk About" - Between 1946-1964, Yogi played 19 seasons of Major League Baseball, all with the New York Yankees.  He made fifteen straight All-Star games during one stretch and won ten World Series Rings (that's still the all-time record).  Chances are you've heard of him.  He won three MVP awards, and was runner up on two other occasions.  Perhaps I am a victim of my "participation trophy" generation up-bringing, but I find Yogi's accomplishments to be rather impressive.  However, in 1971, the BBWAA was not as easily impressed, and Yogi received only 65% of the Hall of Fame vote and was subsequently not a first ballot inductee.  The following year he squeaked in with 85% of the vote.  Which means 15% of the voters didn't think Yogi was Hall worthy not once, but twice.  And before you rush to defend them and say, "well, there was still a log jam of old-timers back then,"  not a single individual garnered 75% of the vote in 1971 and no one was inducted.

"That's Not a Knife" - It's a "malapropism." A malapropism is the mistaken use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound.  Yogi was known for them, for example, he was once quoted as  saying "Texas has a lot of electircal votes."  Then again, maybe he didn't say it, as he was also quoted as saying "I didn't really say everything I said."

"More of a love bite really..." - There is nothing wrong with this card, it's one of my favorites in my collection.  It's Yogi Berra, it's over 65 years old, and the idea of nit picking over something as trivial as it's condition just strikes me as absurd.

"Down Under" - Berra is card #191 in the 1952 set. As much as I love this '53, I still prefer the '52 card.  Maybe I'm just sentimental, as the '52 Berra was one of the first "high dollar" card purchases I ever made, and it felt pretty momentous when it arrived, but biased or not, I prefer it to the '53.  That cuts the '53 set's lead to 25-20-7.

"At the Oscars"

Inducted to Baseball Hall of Fame '72

3x AL MVP '51, '54, '55

15x All-Star

10x World Series Champion

2nd AL RBI's '54

3rd AL RBI's '50

3rd AL RBI's '55

4th AL RBI's 53

4th AL RBI's 56

5th AL RBI's '52

3rd AL Home Runs '52

3rd AL Home Runs '56

4th AL Home Runs '51

4th AL Home Runs '53

4th AL Home Runs '55

4th AL Runs '50

4th AL Runs '52

4th AL Hits '50

4th AL Doubles '54

4th AL Doubles '56