YOGI BERRA, 1951 | Peter Lawrence "Yogi" Berra crossed the plate in front of dejected catcher Joe Ginsberg after one of his 358 career home runs provided the winning runs in an extra-inning game in Detroit. Berra, a St. Louis native and Navy veteran who had fought on a rocket ship off Omaha Beach on D-Day, was a homely, garrulous, and utterly original character, but he probably did not author half of the malapropisms attributed to him. He was a superlative catcher and clutch hitter; he may have been the best bad-ball hitter in history. Stengel called him "my assistant manager," a tribute to his field leadership. Berra appeared in a record 14 World Series, won MVP awards in 1951, 1954 and 1955, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972.

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