Yogi Berra - Presidential Medal of Freedom

[magwell]

Sad day for fans of Yogi and I was one of his biggest fans.......

[burnsy]

Originally Posted by pandy

Yogi will be missed, what a guy. Yogi was an amazing hitter. He would swing at almost every pitch regardless of where the pitch was. I saw him get key hits on pitches that were a few inches off the ground or a foot over his head. This guy had Ted Williams-like hand-eye coordination. Truly remarkable because the more you swing at pitches out of the strike zone, the lower your average should be.

There were two years where he only struck out only 12 times and 1 was a full season of 151 games. Many years he struck out less than 30 times, swinging at everything. Yeah, could he hit.

Lawrence Berra. Major leagues 9/22/46-5/9/65. Yankees and Mets (1 year).

358 HR (84th)

.285 BA

1430 RBI (68th)

3X MVP

18X All-star

10 rings

All the class and heart to go along with being the champ that he was.

They were talking about him on the radio cast during the game last night. Yogi was the type guy that would show up at the Whitehouse and they would let him in, but he didn't even realize he was famous.

They told another story where he was at spring training when he was older. He slipped on soup and fell in the clubhouse. He was scared if his wife found out she would make him come home so he tried to keep it quiet. It was all over the news that night.

RIP Yogi.

[pandy]

Just read that Yogi and Joe D were the only two players in major league history to hit over 350 home rums and strike out less than 500 times. Pretty amazing. Burnsy pointed out that he had two seasons when he struck out 12 times. Anyone who's tried to hit a baseball knows how unusual that is.

That's why I thought Mike Piazza was one of the best right hand hitters I've ever seen. He hit over 40 homers in a season while striking out less than 30 times and it's not like he was trying to hit singles, he swung as hard as he could. You have to have tremendous hand eye coordination to do that.

[Tor Ekman]

Originally Posted by pandy

Just read that Yogi and Joe D were the only two players in major league history to hit over 350 home rums and strike out less than 500 times. Pretty amazing. Burnsy pointed out that he had two seasons when he struck out 12 times. Anyone who's tried to hit a baseball knows how unusual that is.

That's why I thought Mike Piazza was one of the best right hand hitters I've ever seen. He hit over 40 homers in a season while striking out less than 30 times and it's not like he was trying to hit singles, he swung as hard as he could. You have to have tremendous hand eye coordination to do that.

Hand eye coordination, true, but in Piazza's case, aided by pumped up weight training likely enhanced by steroids or HGH. I'm a Mets' fan but I'm pretty certain that Piazza juiced. The only supplement that Yogi ever ingested was Yoo Hoo. Piazza's name shouldn't be mentioned in the same thread as Yogi, IMHO

[pandy]

Originally Posted by Tor Ekman

Hand eye coordination, true, but in Piazza's case, aided by pumped up weight training likely enhanced by steroids or HGH. I'm a Mets' fan but I'm pretty certain that Piazza juiced. The only supplement that Yogi ever ingested was Yoo Hoo. Piazza's name shouldn't be mentioned in the same thread as Yogi, IMHO

It's certainly possible that Piazza used steroids, although he didn't have that fat neck look and his body didn't change suddenly like McGwire, Sosa, and Barry Bonds did. And he didn't suddenly improved sharply like they did, either.

I don't think you can say that he definitely juiced. He was a big guy who made contact so hitting 40 homers is not unusual. Those other guys hit 60 homers and it was blatantly obvious that they were on steroids. Piazza was a sensational hitter.

[Tor Ekman]

I'm not alone in my suspicions about Piazza and I've heard some respected baseball writers say publicly they've seen enough information to be convinced that he juiced, which is why he fell short of the HOF vote. While he may not have had the bull neck look, more than one reporter has commented on his prominent back acne, a tell-tale sign of steroid use.

[Robert Fischer]

Yogi was a real champion. Not talking about rings. Piazza had some great years and was a top hitter for a while.

[Marshall Bennett]

Even had Piazza been using, I doubt that it had anything to do with him making consistent contact with the ball, but instead only in hitting it further. If he's cheating, however, to me it makes no difference one way or the other. He's not even worthy of discussion.

[NJ Stinks]

If the name Moss Klein means something to you - and it does if you read the Star-Ledger in younger days - you'll enjoy reading his memories of Yogi.

link:http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/...writer_mo.html