Yogi Berra, quotable baseball great, is dead at 90

(Image credit: Jim McIsaac/Getty Image)

published 23 September 2015

"It ain't over till it's over," New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra famously said. Berra, 90, died Tuesday night, the Yogi Berra Museum said early Wednesday. The Yankees confirmed the news, calling Berra an "American hero," and Major League Baseball tweeted out a remembrance of the catcher, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972:

Berra's wife died in March 2014, after 65 years of marriage, and Berra had been in poor health, the New York Post notes. Berra signed with the Yankees in 1942, and led them to five consecutive World Series championships from 1949 to 1953. After retiring, he managed both the Mets and the Yankees, before Yankees owner George Steinbrenner fired him through a surrogate midway through the 1985 season. Berra didn't set foot in Yankee Stadium again until 1999, after Steinbrenner apologized.

Lawrence Peter Berra was born in St. Louis in 1925 to immigrant parents. He is survived by three sons, 11 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Along with being a baseball legend, Berra will also be remembered for his pithy quotes, though he once claimed that he "never said some of the things I said." One of those quotes: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." And so he has.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.