This article is published in partnership with SI.com. The original version can be found here.
Hall of Fame catcher and baseball icon Yogi Berra passed away on Tuesday night, 69 years to the day after his MLB debut, at the age of 90, the Yogi Berra Museum confirmed to SI.com.
Widely considered one of the game’s greatest catchers ever, he caught the only perfect game in World Series history in 1956.
Berra spent his entire 19-year career with the New York Yankees. He made 18 consecutive All-Star Game appearances from 1948 to ’62. He won MLB MVP in 1951, ’54 and ’55.
Berra was a lifetime .285 hitter, who hit 358 home runs and collected 1,430 RBIs. He played in 14 World Series, winning 10 championships with the Yankees.
After his playing career, Berra managed the Yankees and later the Mets. He is one of only six managers to lead National and American League teams to the World Series.
Perhaps more than his baseball accolades, Berra is remembered for his vivacious personality and Yogi-isms, eight of which (including the essential “It ain’t over till it’s over”) have found their way into Bartlett’s Famous Quotations. The real Yogi-isms took on a life of their own, generating many more apocryphal ones and leading him to observe that “I never said most of the things I said.”
Berra served with the Navy in World War 2, notably on a gunboat supporting the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Less dramatically, he was also behind the decision to name the cartoon character Yogi Bear.
According to the Associated Press, Berra’s wife once asked him where he wanted to be buried, in St. Louis, New York or Montclair.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Why don’t you surprise me?”
