WTHBALLS 1950 CUSTOM SET: YOGI BERRA

Today we'll finally put a spotlight on my 1950 WTHBALLS custom set, released back in 2018, celebrating the stars of the game at that time, beginning with Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra:

The set of bookmark sized cards were packaged with a bonus "all-time leaders" six card set, packaged inside a candy bar themes wrap as seen in the image included here.

It was a popular release and sold out quickly, and I thank you all who purchased one!

As for Mr. Berra, let's see, the man was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, a FIFTEEN-TIME all-star, and received Most Valuable Player votes every single year between 1947 and 1961. As a matter of fact, between 1950 and 1956 he never finished lower than fourth for the MVP, with three wins, and two second place finishes!

That's seven top-4 finishes in seven years! Just awesome.

Oh yeah, let's not forget the fact that he was a member of TEN world championship teams! Amazing!

Except for four scant games in 1965 with the New York Mets, Berra played the rest of his 19-year career with the Bronx Bombers, amassing 358 homers, 1430 runs batted in and a .285 average.

One other note about his amazing career: the man only struck out 414 times over 8359 at-bats!

YOGI!!! I loved that man!

A true baseball treasure…

 

WTHBALLS CUSTOM SET SPOTLIGHT: 1960S STARS OF THE GAME: YOGI BERRA

Time to spotlight my custom "1960s Stars of the Game" card of Yogi Berra here on the blog, from my custom set released back in 2018 in WTHBALLS gelatin box with other goodies inside:

Let's see, the man was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, a FIFTEEN-TIME all-star, and received Most Valuable Player votes every single year between 1947 and 1961. As a matter of fact, between 1950 and 1956 he never finished lower than fourth for the MVP, with three wins, and two second place finishes!

That's seven top-4 finishes in seven years! Just awesome.

Oh yeah, let's not forget the fact that he was a member of TEN world championship teams! Amazing!

Except for four scant games in 1965 with the New York Mets, Berra played the rest of his 19-year career with the Bronx Bombers, amassing 358 homers, 1430 runs batted in and a .285 average.

One other note about his amazing career: the man only struck out 414 times over 8359 at-bats!

YOGI!!! I loved that man!

A true baseball treasure…

 

"CLASSIC BASEBALL" CUSTOM WTHBALLS SET: YOGI BERRA

On the blog today, we add the great Yogi Berra to my "Classic Baseball" custom set, due for a multi-series release later this year:

Let's see, the man was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, a FIFTEEN-TIME all-star, and received Most Valuable Player votes every single year between 1947 and 1961. As a matter of fact, between 1950 and 1956 he never finished lower than fourth for the MVP, with three wins, and two second place finishes!

That's seven top-4 finishes in seven years! Just awesome.

Oh yeah, let's not forget the fact that he was a member of TEN world championship teams! Amazing!

Except for four scant games in 1965 with the New York Mets, Berra played the rest of his 19-year career with the Bronx Bombers, amassing 358 homers, 1430 runs batted in and a .285 average.

One other note about his amazing career: the man only struck out 414 times over 8359 at-bats!

YOGI!!! I loved that man!

A true baseball treasure…

 

1960S "IN-ACTION": 1960 YOGI BERRA

Today's blog post has me adding a 1960 "In-Action" card for all-time great Yogi Berra, which I hope to be part of the third series in this collection in the coming months:

Fun template to play around with!

Let's see, the man was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, a FIFTEEN-TIME all-star, and received Most Valuable Player votes every single year between 1947 and 1961. As a matter of fact, between 1950 and 1956 he never finished lower than fourth for the MVP, with three wins, and two second place finishes!

That's seven top-4 finishes in seven years! Just awesome.

Oh yeah, let's not forget the fact that he was a member of TEN world championship teams! Amazing!

Except for four scant games in 1965 with the New York Mets, Berra played the rest of his 19-year career with the Bronx Bombers, amassing 358 homers, 1430 runs batted in and a .285 average.

One other note about his amazing career: the man only struck out 414 times over 8359 at-bats!

YOGI!!! I loved that man!

A true baseball treasure…

1960'S CAREER-CAPPERS INSERTS: YOGI BERRA

Up on the blog today, my Yogi Berra special insert from my "1960s Career-Cappers" set released a few years ago:

Just a nice photo of the all-time favorite catcher during his New York Yankees heyday.

Let's see, the man was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, a FIFTEEN-TIME all-star, and received Most Valuable Player votes every single year between 1947 and 1961. As a matter of fact, between 1950 and 1956 he never finished lower than fourth for the MVP, with three wins, and two second place finishes!

That's seven top-4 finishes in seven years! Just awesome.

Oh yeah, let's not forget the fact that he was a member of TEN world championship teams! Amazing!

Except for four scant games in 1965 with the New York Mets, Berra played the rest of his 19-year career with the Bronx Bombers, amassing 358 homers, 1430 runs batted in and a .285 average.

One other note about his amazing career: the man only struck out 414 times over 8359 at-bats!

YOGI!!! I loved that man!

A true baseball treasure…

MISSING IN ACTION: 1975 N.L. ALL-STAR MANAGER: YOGI BERRA

Today on the blog, we go and add the "missing" 1975 National League All-Star manager card to compliment my recent A.L. counterpart, the Senior League's skipper in Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra, who led the N.L. for the 1974 Midsummer Classic based on his pennant winning 1973 season with the New York Mets:

Sadly for him, Berra was coming off a disappointing 1974 season that saw the reigning National League champs fall from first to fifth after a World Series loss in 1973 to the Oakland A's.

Turns out the 1975 season he would be let go about three quarters into the year, having the Mets in third place with a record of 56-53. Not exactly a horrible year, and ironically winning at a higher clip than their 1973 season when the team made the World Series with a record of only 82-79.

Berra wouldn't manage again until 1984 after years of coaching, coming back to the New York Yankees and guiding them to a record of 87-75, good for a third place finish.

The following season he'd be let go after only 16 games, with the Yanks at 6-10, which would be the last Managerial position of his long baseball career.

His only other manager spot was way back in 1964 when he led the Yankees to the World Series with a record of 99-63 before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals and Bob Gibson.

Little did Yankee fans know it would be the last time they'd be in the World Series until 1976 after an incredible run of Postseason berths the previous 40 some odd seasons.

For Berra, the Hall of Famer finished his managing career with a record of 484-444, good for a .522 winning percentage, with two pennants.

MINOR LEAGUE DAYS: LEGENDS EDITION: YOGI BERRA

Today we add the great Yogi Berra to my on-going 1971 "Minor League Days: Legends Edition" sub-set, celebrating all-time greats and their time toiling in the Minors:

Yogi spent one season with the Norfolk Tars in 1943 as an 18-year-old, "making his bones" so to speak before losing a couple of seasons serving in the military between 1944 and 1945.

In that one season he hit .253 over 111 games, with 56 runs batted in and 53 runs scored with seven homers.

After the war he came back to the Minors, playing for the Newark Bears before a call-up to the New York Yankees in 1946, where he came to stay.

Well, we all know what he would do once in the Majors...

Besides being a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, he was a FIFTEEN-TIME all-star, and received Most Valuable Player votes every single year between 1947 and 1961. As a matter of fact, between 1950 and 1956 he never finished lower than fourth for the MVP, with three wins, and two second place finishes!

That's seven top-4 finishes in seven years! Just awesome.

Except for four scant games in 1965 with the New York Mets, Berra played the rest of his 19-year career with the Bronx Bombers, amassing 358 homers, 1430 runs batted in and a .285 average.

One other note about his amazing career: the man only struck out 414 times over 8359 at-bats!

YOGI!!! I loved that man!

A true baseball treasure…

VINTAGE SPECIAL! "MISSING" 1954 WILSON'S FRANKS YOGI BERRA

Continuing with my fun vintage special thread of "missing" 1954 Wilson Franks cards, we add the great Yogi Berra, New York Yankees legend and American Icon:

Berra was coming off a second place-MVP finish in 1953, and it would only get better, as he would reel off two straight MVP seasons in 1954 and 1955, making it three such awards in five years, instantly putting him in all-time conversation by the time he was 30 years of age.

Besides being a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, he was a FIFTEEN-TIME all-star, and received Most Valuable Player votes every single year between 1947 and 1961. As a matter of fact, between 1950 and 1956 he never finished lower than fourth for the MVP, with three wins, and two second place finishes!

That's seven top-4 finishes in seven years! Just awesome.

Except for four scant games in 1965 with the New York Mets, Berra played the rest of his 19-year career with the Bronx Bombers, amassing 358 homers, 1430 runs batted in and a .285 average.

One other note about his amazing career: the man only struck out 414 times over 8359 at-bats!

YOGI!!! I loved that man!

A true baseball treasure…

 

1960'S CAREER-CAPPERS: 1966 YOGI BERRA

Up on the blog today we have my 1966 "Career-Capper" for All-Time Great Yogi Berra, from my special custom set released a few years back:

Let's see, the man was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, a FIFTEEN-TIME all-star, and received Most Valuable Player votes every single year between 1947 and 1961. As a matter of fact, between 1950 and 1956 he never finished lower than fourth for the MVP, with three wins, and two second place finishes!

That's seven top-4 finishes in seven years! Just awesome.

Except for four scant games in 1965 with the New York Mets, Berra played the rest of his 19-year career with the Bronx Bombers, amassing 358 homers, 1430 runs batted in and a .285 average.

One other note about his amazing career: the man only struck out 414 times over 8359 at-bats!

YOGI!!! I loved that man!

A true baseball treasure…

SPECIAL SPOTLIGHT: "LOST" 1963 FLEER SECOND SERIES: YOGI BERRA

The next “missing” 1963 Fleer card to get the spotlight here on the blog is none other than the great Yogi Berra, New York Yankee icon and one of baseball’s all-time ambassadors:

 

 

The “Lost Second Series” 1963 custom set was release at the tail end of last year, and expanded on the limited 66-card original set issued by Fleer (with a cookie instead of gum) before Topps put a stop to it “mafia-style”.

As for Berra, he was coming to the end of his playing days by the time this card would have seen the light of day, limited to only 86 games in 1962, hitting a career-low .224, with 10 homers and 35 runs batted in for the World Champs.

Let's see, the man was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, a FIFTEEN-TIME all-star, and received Most Valuable Player votes every single year between 1947 and 1961. As a matter of fact, between 1950 and 1956 he never finished lower than fourth for the MVP, with three wins, and two second place finishes!

That's seven top-4 finishes in seven years! Just awesome.

Except for four scant games in 1965 with the New York Mets, Berra played the rest of his 19-year career with the Bronx Bombers, amassing 358 homers, 1430 runs batted in and a .285 average.

One other note about his amazing career: the man only struck out 414 times over 8359 at-bats!

YOGI!!! I loved that man!

A true baseball treasure…

DEDICATED MANAGER CARD- 1975 YOGI BERRA

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL! I hope you're all safe and well this morning!

Today's "dedicated manager" card is a 1975 edition for the great Yogi Berra, who was at the helm of the New York Mets when this beauty would have hit packs before the '75 season:

 

Berra was coming off a disappointing 1974 season that saw the reigning National League champs fall from first to fifth after a World Series loss in 1973 to the Oakland A's.

Turns out the 1975 season he would be let go about three quarters into the year, having the Mets in third place with a record of 56-53. Not exactly a horrible year, and ironically winning at a higher clip than their 1973 season when the team made the World Series with a record of only 82-79.

Berra wouldn't manage again until 1984 after years of coaching, coming back to the New York Yankees and guiding them to a record of 87-75, good for a third place finish.

The following season he'd be let go after only 16 games, with the Yanks at 6-10, which would be the last Managerial position of his long baseball career.

His only other manager spot was way back in 1964 when he led the Yankees to the World Series with a record of 99-63 before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals and Bob Gibson.

Little did Yankee fans know it would be the last time they'd be in the World Series until 1976 after an incredible run of Postseason berths the previous 40 some odd seasons.

For Berra, the Hall of Famer finished his managing career with a record of 484-444, good for a .522 winning percentage, with two pennants.

COACH FANTASY CARD- 1970 YOGI BERRA

The next coach card up in my ongoing series is former New York Yankees great Yogi Berra, who moved on to coaching the cross-town Mets after a Hall of Fame playing career and one-year stint as a manager in 1964 over in the Bronx:

Berra would go on to put in a few years coaching out in Queens for the Mets before becoming their manager after the untimely death of former skipper Gil Hodges, and wouldn’t you know it, they would go all the way to the World Series before losing to the dynastic Oakland A’s.
This was the team best known for “Ya Gotta Believe” thanks to reliever Tug McGraws famous call, and made Yogi a World Series manager in both the American League (in 1964 with the Yanks) and National League with these Mets.
He would go on to become a Yankee coach AND manager yet again, as well as a Houston skipper later on before just being “Yogi”, the Yankee ambassador of history and legend until his death in 2015.
About as beloved a player as the sport has ever seen, he is sorely missed, but we’ll always have his “Yogi-isms” to make us smile...

FANTASY COACH CARD: 1977 YOGI BERRA

Here was a fun card to create, a 1977 coach card for Hall of Fame all-time great Yogi Berra, who sadly passed away not too long ago:

Berra came back to the Bronx to coach the Yankees from 1976 and 1983 before becoming the Yankee manager once again in 1984.
His on-again off-again marriage to the Yankee organization would span seven decades! And his persona was and IS the stuff of legend.
Hall of Fame catcher, he of three Most Valuable Player Awards, 10 World Championships as a player, the man occupies that highest of stratospheres in baseball history, and rightly so.
No need to cover all of his player accomplishments here, as I have covered them earlier, but man will he be missed!

HALL OF FAME #10: YOGI BERRA: CLASS OF 1972

Next up on my "Hall of Fame Inductees" thread we move onto 1972 and Yogi Berra, Yankee all-time great and all-around awesome dude:

Believe it or not Berra wasn't even inducted in his first year of eligibility!

In 1971 he only garnered 67.2% of the vote, so he had to wait until his second year to be inducted into Cooperstown.

Let's see, the man was a three-time American League Most Valuable Player, a FIFTEEN-TIME all-star, and received Most Valuable Player votes every single year between 1947 and 1961.

Just awesome.

And while winning the M.V.P. in 1951, 1954 and 1955, he also finished second in 1953 and 1956 with a third-place finish in 1950 and fourth place finish in 1952! 

That's seven top-4 finishes in seven years!

Except for four scant games in 1965 with the New York Mets, Berra played the rest of his 19-year career with the Bronx Bombers, amassing 358 homers, 1430 runs batted in and a .285 average.

One other note about his amazing career: the man only struck out 414 times over 8359 at-bats!

YOGI!!! I love that man!