Yogi Berra (born Giuseppe Berra; July 12, 1925 – September 22, 2015) was an American professional baseball catcher. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career for the New York Yankees (1947–1972). Nicknamed "Yogi" and "The Man" by Yankee fans and the media, Berra was widely regarded as one of the best catchers in baseball history. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972 and received the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1989.
A native of Floral Park, New York, Berra was the only child of Italian immigrants
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He enjoyed a prosperous childhood and attended high school at St. Dominic High School in Ozone Park, Queens before becoming a professional baseball player. After playing four seasons as a catcher with the Yankees' organization, he was selected as a backup for their 1947 World Series championship team that defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in five games.
The Yankees went on to win four more World Series championships with Berra as their starting catcher, including three in succession from 1949 to 1952. After struggling during the regular season, he caught fire during the postseason, leading all major league catchers with nine runs batted in during the 1950 World Series against the Cleveland Indians.
Berra retired from playing baseball at age 34 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer. He served as Yankees' public address announcer for two decades until his retirement in 2000 at age 85, calling games alongside former Yankee teammates Mel Stottlemyre Jr., Tony Kubek, Bill White and Bobby Richardson.
A 13-time All-Star selection, Berra ranked among the top ten among National League catchers in career games caught (2nd), hits (4th) and runs scored (4th), and among American League catchers ranked second in home runs (78) and runs batted in (RBIs) (1,141). At his death he held several records for most career games played by an active major league catcher with 2,857 games played through December 2015—the most ever by any active catcher—and had held most of those records since his retirement. He also remained active as a special instructor for the Yankees' minor league system until shortly before his death at age 90 on September 22, 2015 at his home in Montclair Township, New Jersey.