Everybody loves Yogi...Sept 1946 was his rookie year...show off your Yogi stuff

[tedzan]

September 1946, Yogi put on the Yankees uniform. In my book, Yogi is one of the finest Catchers in the history of professional BB.

I have met Yogi Berra several times. My older daughter, Debbie, lived 4 houses away on the same street where Yogi lives in Montclair, NJ.

So, show us all the Yogi BB cards....memorabilia....and, some rarefied stuff that you may have of Yogi.


My wife snapped this photo of Yogi in Cooperstown in 2012.....it's the last time Yogi was at the HOF weekend ceremonies.



Cooperstown 2012 ...... Photo by Charlotte Zanidakis



I will start this show with my 3 favorite BB cards of Yogi......





Hey guys....do check-out Yogi's Museum when you are anywhere near Montclair, NJ. Believe me, it's worth the trip.

http://yogiberramuseum.org/



TED Z
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[Chris Counts]

Here's a snapshot of Yogi with Bobby Brown taken shortly before he was called up. He's wearing a Newark Bears uniform ...

[h2oya311]

Here's Berra w/ the Naval Sub Base Team of the Service League in 1945:

[packs]

One of my favorite signed cards:

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by Chris Counts

Here's a snapshot of Yogi with Bobby Brown taken shortly before he was called up. He's wearing a Newark Bears uniform ...

That is really a great photo of Yogi and Bobby Brown, thanks for posting it. My guess is that this photo is circa 1945-46.

When my neighborhood buddies, John and Joe, and I were teenagers, we would ride our bikes to Ruppert Stadium (Newark Bears)
to see pro ballgames. For us young kids, it was really exciting to see future stars of this Yankees Triple-A team playing BB.

We lived in Hillside, NJ back then which was an 8 mile bike ride to the stadium.


TED Z
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[yanksfan09]

early card.....

[ValKehl]

Hi Ted - I've "hated" the Yankees ever since I was a kid, because they always beat up on my Senators! But, the only Yankee that I recall ever rooting for back in the day was Yogi, and I am fortunate to have gotten to see him play at Griffith Stadium in the 1950's when he was in his prime. Of my Berra cards, this one is my favorite:

[buymycards]

Yogi

[Brian Van Horn]

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[bigfanNY]

Love the Yogi

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Hi Ted - I've "hated" the Yankees ever since I was a kid, because they always beat up on my Senators! But, the only Yankee that I recall ever rooting for back in the day was Yogi, and I am fortunate to have gotten to see him play at Griffith Stadium in the 1950's when he was in his prime. Of my Berra cards, this one is my favorite:

Nice card of Yogi....one you do not see too often.

Hey, your guys had Mickey Grasso behind the plate in the early 1950's.

Mickey grew up near where I lived in NJ, only 12 miles north of me.


TED Z

[Tao_Moko]

The vast majority of today's drug enhanced puds don't deserve to drink Yogi's piss. Yogi took a break from baseball to serve and fight in Normandy and still put up career figures tough to beat. To think that A-Rod makes more in one season than Yogi did in his career is enough to make me sick. Semper Fi!

[MikeGarcia]

...the sleeve is a brighter yellow than the scan shows.....

[CrazyDiamond]

One of my favorites

[tjb1952tjb]

My only Yogi Berra card.........'52 Bowman, first card in the set.

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by Tao_Moko

The vast majority of today's drug enhanced puds don't deserve to drink Yogi's piss. Yogi took a break from baseball to serve and fight in Normandy and still put up career figures tough to beat. To think that A-Rod makes more in one season than Yogi did in his career is enough to make me sick. Semper Fi!

Well said......and, I will add this fact:

The necessary "ingredient" to a Championship team is a Star Catcher. Throughout the history of BB, most successful BB teams had great Catchers
like Yogi Berra.

Some more Star Catchers that quickly come to mind....Roger Bresnahan, Bill Dickey, Roy Campanella, Johnny Bench, Thurman Munson, Carlton Fisk,
Mike Piazza, etc, etc.

There are many more, but I have to run out now.


TED Z
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[packs]

Was Yogi really 5'8? He always looks so small on the field but he's also pretty old now.

[71buc]

This signed 1951 US Treasury Department poster is my favorite Yogi item in my collection.

[tedzan]

TED Z
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[tedzan]

Yogi in the midst of some great players........................................... ............................/\ 3rd row down


TED Z
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[Theo_450]

Originally Posted by MikeGarcia

...the sleeve is a brighter yellow than the scan shows.....

Does the record play? What does it play?

[sayhey24]

These are terrible photos, but here is Yogi's 1952 World Series game used bat.
In the shot of the vertical bats, it's directly to the right of the bat with the pine tar.
In the other photo, you just see the top half of the Yogi bat at the very bottom of the photo.

Greg

[Jacklitsch]

[stlcardsfan]

"All pitchers are liars or crybabies."

"A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore."

"Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical."

"Bill Dickey is learning me his experience."

"He hits from both sides of the plate. He's amphibious."

"How can a you hit and think at the same time?"

"I always thought that record would stand until it was broken."

"I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won twenty-five games. What I don't understand is how he lost five."

"I don't know (if they were men or women fans running naked across the field). They had bags over their heads."

"If people don't want to come out to the ballpark, how are you going to stop them?"

"I'm a lucky guy and I'm happy to be with the Yankees. And I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary."

"I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did."

"In baseball, you don't know nothing."

"I never blame myself when I'm not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn't my fault that I'm not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?"

"I never said most of the things I said."

"It ain't the heat, it's the humility."

"It gets late early out there."

"I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house."

"It's like deja vu all over again."

"I wish everybody had the drive he (Joe DiMaggio) had. He never did anything wrong on the field. I'd never seen him dive for a ball, everything was a chest-high catch, and he never walked off the field."

"Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets." Source: Catcher in the Wry (Bob Uecker)

"Ninety percent of this game is half mental." Source: Sports Illustrated (May 14, 1979)

"Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded."

"So I'm ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face."

"Take it with a grin of salt."

"The game's isn't over until it's over."

"The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase."

"You can observe a lot just by watching."

"You should always go to other people's funerals, otherwise, they won't come to yours."

"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going because you might not get there."

"We made too many wrong mistakes."

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

[tedzan]

Collecting BB cards in the 1950's was an exciting time. Especially, when opening a red-white-blue-black BOWMAN 5-cent waxpack in 1953, and finding
Yogi Berra....Hank Bauer....Mickey Mantle on a single card. Boy, did that really make our day.

In the Spring of 1953, the BOWMAN Gum Co. introduced several multi-player BB cards in their color set.

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TED Z
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[YankeeFan]

It was said that he enjoyed comics books. So why not give him his own?

Front and back covers:

[MikeGarcia]

...someone had asked about the 45 record :


...I've never played the record but I assume it's a recording of Yogi telling us about catching.....It appears to never have been played.... it came with a similar Phil Rizzuto- that's in a blue and white sleeve


......and if anyone knows anything at all about the Mantle , I'd be interested in knowing too...stiff card stock and facsimile signature ; the back is mostly blank and a very harsh white with no watermark ; at the top it has in half-inch high letters in black print:

MICKEY MANTLE then right under that in a slightly smaller font : in quotation marks

"HALL OF FAME" then 'way at the bottom , in parentheses




(Not Intended For Resale)




....We all know the photo as the hands-down greatest picture ever taken of the Mick....

[tedzan]

TED Z
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[ErikV]

Love the Stengelisms by Yogi, especially the Bill Dickey reference.

[Den*nis O*Brien]

Yogi GPC

[tedzan]

1953 BOWMAN B/W extension set card (produced in 1980) of Yogi Berra.



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TED Z
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[Runscott]

Just picked this up, to go with my 1952 Yankees western hat (same as ones shown in this photo), and here's my only Berra autograph, on a '56 Yankees ball, which is in the process of being framed with other stuff:

[tedzan]

The 1947 BOND BREAD cards were the first Sportscards that I collected when I was 8 years old. Here is Yogi's card from this set.

Furthermore, in 1947 the TIP TOP Bakery issued a widely distributed set of B & W BB cards, which also included Yogi Berra. So, is
this Yogi's true "Rookie" card, or is it his 1947 BOND BREAD card ?

Which of these two sets were issued first ? Do we know ? ?

In any event, it's fair to say that these cards are his 1st Major League cards.


1947 BOND BREAD




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TED Z
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[h2oya311]

Ted Z -

Nice Tip Top! I consider that his rookie card. Not a fan of the Bond Bread cards...

[btcarfagno]

Just got this in. From the collection of Ozzie Smith. Measures 16x20. Also happens to be for sale if anyone is interested (shameless plug).





Tom C

[ValKehl]

Ted, I never realized that Yogi played some outfield very early in his Yankee career - I just learned this from seeing your Tip-Top card. By the time I got hooked on baseball and card collecting as a kid (1954-55), he was strictly a catcher as far as I ever knew. Another Net54 learning experience!
Val

[tedzan]

Originally Posted by ValKehl

Ted, I never realized that Yogi played some outfield very early in his Yankee career - I just learned this from seeing your Tip-Top card. By the time I got hooked on baseball and card collecting as a kid (1954-55), he was strictly a catcher as far as I ever knew. Another Net54 learning experience!
Val

For the 1946 and 1947 seasons, Aaron Robinson was the Yankees Catcher. So, Yogi played in LF and RF. Bucky Harris (one of your guys)
told Bill Dickey to make a Catcher out of Yogi.

In the Spring of 1948, the Yankees traded Aaron Robinson (and others) to the White Sox for Eddie Lopat; therefore, making Yogi their new
Catcher.


Take care....my good friend,

TED Z
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[tedzan]

TED Z
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[mrmantlecollector]

Yogi collection
http://s765.photobucket.com/user/mrm...w/yogi%20berra

[megalimey]

Yogi Berra MLB debut ticket

[BlueDevil89]

[leaflover]

Having fun!

[DeanH3]

I have always loved the '61 Topps Yogi. Awesome shot.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Berra many years ago. Just realized that was 20 years ago. Yikes, time sure does fly.

[Bosox Blair]

Another Yogi auto'd card:

[Kawika]

Good ol' Yogi. Lots of wonderful memories watching him play. I don't think there was a kid on Earth who didn't like Yogi.


Dormand postcard


1957 Wirephoto

[tedzan]

Yogi Berra has played in 14 World Series......and, has 10 World Series Championship rings. Has any other ballplayer in the history
of BB achieved more than this in the post season ?

I don't think so !

And, Yogi has played a major role in his team's success for 18 years. There is not any better measurement of a ballplayer than this.

Both Yogi and Mickey each have 3 MVP awards. Their combined statistical numbers in World Series play are impressive:


........ Berra .... Mantle ..... Total

AB...... 259 ....... 230 ......... 489

Hits..... 71 ......... 59 .......... 130

HR....... 12 ........ 18 ........... 30

RBI...... 39 ........ 40 ........... 79


In my years (1947-2014) watching BB....MICKEY MANTLE & YOGI BERRA are the greatest duo that I've ever seen play the game.
Individually, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, and Stan Musial are the greatest I've seen.



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.................................................. .................................... Cooperstown 2012 ...... Photo by Charlotte Zanidakis




TED Z
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