Yogi Berra
[Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, NY], ca. October 1947
Yogi Berra Takes Photo with Babe Ruth
Signed photograph

YOGI BERRA, Signed Photograph with Babe Ruth, [ca. October] 1947, [Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, New York]. 1 p., 8" x 10". Very good. With Steiner and Bruyer certificates of authenticity.

This photograph of Yogi Berra with baseball legend Babe Ruth was taken in 1947, perhaps during the 1947 World Series between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers. Both New York Yankee Berra and Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson were in their rookie seasons, and it was the first World Series to be televised. The Yankees won Game 7 at Yankee Stadium to take the championship. Ruth died in August 1948 of throat cancer.

Lawrence Peter ?Yogi? Berra (1925-2015) was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Italian immigrants. He left school after the eighth grade to help earn income for his family. While playing baseball in local leagues, Berra received the nickname ?Yogi? from a friend who had seen a newsreel about India and thought he resembled a yogi from there. After playing for a minor league team in 1943, Berra joined the U.S. Navy and served on an attack transport during the Normandy landings in 1944. After discharge in 1946, Berra again played minor-league baseball briefly before being called up to the New York Yankees in September 1946. Over his career as a catcher, he appeared in a record 14 World Series, including a record 10 World Series championships. He was an All-Star 18 times and won the AL MVP award in 1951, 1954, and 1955. He spent 1963 as a player-coach, then retired after the 1963 World Series as a player and became a manager. He went on to serve as coach of the New York Mets (1965-1971), New York Yankees (1976-1983), and Houston Astros (1986-1989). He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. In 2015, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Berra the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

George Herman ?Babe? Ruth (1895-1948) was born in Baltimore, Maryland, of German immigrant ancestry. He entered a reformatory at age seven and spent much of the next twelve years there as an ?incorrigible.? He learned shirt making and carpentry skills. In 1914, he began playing baseball with the minor-league Baltimore Orioles, but later that year began a 22-season Major League Baseball career with the Boston Red Sox (1914-1919), then the New York Yankees (1920-1934), and finally the Boston Braves (1935). He retired in June 1935 before the end of the season. In 1936, he was one of five members of the inaugural class of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Nicknamed the ?Bambino? and the ?Sultan of Swat,? Ruth began as a pitcher but soon switched to an outfielder so that he could play every game. Considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time, Ruth had a career batting average of .342, with 2,873 hits and 714 home runs, a record that persisted until 1974. In 1946, he was found to have an inoperable malignant tumor in his skull and neck. He died in August 1948.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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8" x 10"