Yogi Berra, or properly Lawrence Peter Berra, is one of the icons of baseball and America. He is also the best MLB athlete to ever wear the jersey number 8. Oh, by the way, if you're wondering if the rest of this list will be Yankee players also (numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 are Yankees), the answer is no. You'll get your turn soon Red Sox fans.
Berra played almost his entire career with the Yankees. He played with the Bombers between 1946 and 1963, and then had a few games with the Mets in 1965. His first full season as a Yank came in 1948 when he split the season between the outfield and catcher positions. That year he batted .305 with 14 homers and 98 RBI.
Yogi would continue to put up some big numbers at the plate, as well as accolades behind the plate in his 19 major league seasons.
- 358 career homers
- 2,150 career hits
- .285 career batting average
- 10 time World Series champion
- 3 time AL MVP (1951, 1954 and 1955)
- 1972 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee
- Jersey Number 8 retired by the Yankees
Did you know.....that Berra also managed both the Yankees and the Mets?
Number 8 in Other SportsNFL Number 8
NHL Number 8
From Lou Gherig's page;
ReplyDeleteHe was a seven time All-Star and a six time World Series Champion. His number 4 jersey is retired by the New York Yankees.
Of course, Gehrig held the record for consecutive games played with 2,130 until CAL RIPKEN Jr. broke it in 1995.
But yet, Cal wasn't voted best # 8!?
This list is supposed to be the best by the numbers not the best yankees by the numbers!!
AND I AM A LIFELONG YANKEES FAN SAYING THIS!!!!!
The title is "Best Athletes by the Numbers" not "Athletes who never took a day off by the Numbers".
DeleteBoth Berra and Ripken had lengthy careers at positions where defense was a priority . Berra's ratio numbers are all higher than Ripken's and his OPS+, perhaps the best indicator by which to compare different eras, is 125 as opposed to Ripken's 112.
Ripken's counting stats are, of course higher, as he never took a day off but whether that helped or hurt his team can be debated. The two players 162 game average line is dominated by Berra and Berra won 3 MVP awards as opposed to 2 for Ripken.
Also, of course, Berra was an integral part of teams that went to 14 World Series and Berra played on 10 World Series winners. Ripken, on the other hand, was an integral part of teams that made the World Series once, winning that series.
All things considered I have no problem with Berra over Ripken.
Ripken is one of the most overrated players of all-time.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Willie Stargell?
Ripken is no more overrated as a player then the Yankees are as a team. The Yankess have often been a great bunch of overpaid individuals taken off of others' rosters, while other teams have won with great chemistry, management and concept of team first, player second. Thank goodness for the Cal Ripkens, Kirby Pucketts, Tony Gwynns and many others who did not join the Evil Empire.
ReplyDeleteOf course Ripken, Puckett and Gwynn didn't win very often, 3 rings between them as opposed to Berra's 10, but I'm sure they had great chemistry and all that other irrelevant stuff.
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