Legion Baseball alum, MLB great Yogi Berra passes away

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra, one of the most prominent figures and catchers in Major League Baseball history, passed away Tuesday. He was 90.

The MLB legend played almost his entire 19-year baseball career (1946-1965) with the New York Yankees, leading the team to five straight World Series titles. As a player, he appeared in 14 MLB World Series and won 10 of them, totaling 75 Series games and a record 71 hits. The three-time American League Most Valuable Player and 18-time All-Star was rewarded with enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.

Berra, born in St. Louis, got his famous nickname Yogi when his friends thought they saw a resemblance to a "Yogi" character in a movie. During his youth, Berra played on three organized baseball teams, including American Legion Fred W. Stockholm Post 245. In an interview with American Legion Magazine in April 1999, Berra said he "loved American Legion ball" because he was able to travel. "I thought, 'just think if you make it to the big leagues, you get to travel to all them cities.' I never would've left St. Louis without The American Legion."

Following high school, Berra joined the U.S. Navy in 1943 during World War II and served as gunner's mate on the USS Bayfield during the D-Day invasion of France. "I was on a rocket boat," Berra said. "We went in before the Army went in. We stayed off about 400 yards from the beach and fired the rockets in."

In 2009, Berra was honored for exemplifying the Navy's core values with the Lone Sailor Award, given annually to former sailors who have used service-learned skills to further their careers and lives.

After leaving the Navy in 1946, Berra played minor league baseball with the Newark Bears in New Jersey as a catcher. With just two weeks left in the season, his dream of playing professional baseball came true when he received a call to join the Yankees.