YOGI BERRA - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED BASEBALL CO-SIGNED BY: DON LARSEN - HFSID 278783

YOGI BERRA and DON LARSEN
Yankees centennial baseball signed by both players, with Larsen adding the date of the perfect game
Baseball signed: "Yogi Berra" and "10-8-56 Don Larsen". Official Rawlings Major League baseball with Yankees logo celebrating the team's 100th anniversary (1903-2003). A solid but unspectacular starting pitcher, DON LARSEN (b.1929) spent most of his Major League career (1953-1967) with bad teams, resulting in records like his 3-21 for the 1954 Orioles and 1-10 for the 1960 A's. Traded to the Yankees before the 1956 season, Larsen showed he could do a bit better with a solid team behind him. He went 11-5 that year, and on October 8, 1956 he was perfect. Facing the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series, he pitched a no-hitter with no walks, indeed a perfect game. Not a single Dodger reached first base. The last active player who had been a member of the St. Louis Browns, Larsen was a good hitting pitcher, with 14 career home runs and 66 pinch hit appearances. Catching that perfect game was Yankee great YOGI BERRA (1925-2015). A fine defensive catcher and handler of pitchers, Berra was also a feared slugger and clutch hitter who led powerful Yankee teams in RBIs seven years in a row (1949-1955) and was named AL Most Valuable Player three times. Though famous for swinging at bad pitches, Yogi seldom struck out. He played in 14 World Series - on the winning team 10 times - and made every All-Star team from 1948 to 1962. As manager of the Yankees and later the Mets, Berra is one of only three Major League managers (along with Joe McCarthy and Sparky Anderson) to win World Championships in both leagues. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1972. Berra is also famous for enriching the language with expressions like "Ninety per cent of this game is half mental" and "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded". Fine condition.