The Purple Heart That Never Was

By Benjamin Chase

This editorial appeared in the Huron Plainsman on June 8:

“It’s deja vu all over again
It’s good advice to follow when
If you come to the fork in the road you better take it
If you do, you’re bound to make it”
“Yogi Said It” — Big Geek Daddy

In 2021, blogger Big Geek Daddy released this fun tune, utilizing quotes from the Yankees’ enigmatic Hall of Fame catcher as the lyrical basis of a bouncy tune that is bound to make you smile. The video for the song can be found on YouTube.

The song isn’t the focus as much as the person it references, but you may be asking why Yogi, and why now?

Both have to do with a significant anniversary that we celebrated earlier this month across the world. June 6 marked the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. The very rare soldiers from WWII who are still living made a trip to Normandy to commemorate the trip.

To put into context, even a new recruit who was coming off the boats and onto the shores that day at 18 years old is now 98, so anyone still living who participated in D-Day has lived a tremendously long life.

One person no longer with us who was also there on that historic day is Yogi Berra.

This image of Yogi, pictured to the left, with one of his shipmates was taken shortly before his ship disembarked for service at sea.Photo byUnited States Navy Memorial

Lawrence P. Berra was born in 1925 in St. Louis, and he picked up his iconic nickname because a childhood friend thought he looked like a Hindu holy man, or a yogi, that he had seen in a movie.

The 18-year-old Berra was signed by the New York Yankees in 1943 and spent a season in the minor leagues before enlisting in the Navy.

Like many baseball players, he was offered his duty station to play baseball and entertain fellow troops. Except that didn’t suit Yogi.

He quickly got bored and volunteered for a secret mission to use rocket boats to support a future mission on mainland Europe. Berra didn’t know what a rocket boat was, but he was bored of watching others participate in the war effort, and he volunteered.

He would be part of a six-man crew that manned a rocket-launching landing craft at Utah Beach, serving as a gunner’s mate, which meant he was in charge of manning one of the machine guns.

He wasn’t just there that one day, though.

Berra and his ship made multiple supply runs to aid the invasion and then were involved in the battle at Marseilles in southern France, where he was wounded in the left hand, qualifying him for the Purple Heart, but Yogi refused the recognition at the moment, wanting to not worry his mother back home.

He would serve in North Africa and Italy during the war before being discharged in 1946. He immediately returned to baseball and by the end of the 1946 season, he was called up to the New York Yankees, where he would go on to win three Most Valuable Player awards, be selected for the All-Star game 18 times and play in 14 World Series, winning 10 rings, a record for the most championship teams played for that still holds today.

Berra is one of the few people on the planet who was photographed with both Babe Ruth and Derek Jeter. His excellence wasn’t limited to the field, though.

Yogi is well-known for his humorous quotes that can make you chuckle, make you think, or even leave you dumbfounded trying to figure out exactly what he meant.

The impact that he had in the nation’s largest city on the game’s most well-known team in the process of not just accepting Black players into the major leagues, but even going so far as to invest himself into training up his own replacement, Elston Howard, a catcher who has a strong argument for the Hall of Fame on his own merit, was impressive, to say the least.

Howard was a better all-around athlete than Yogi, turning down college football offers from multiple Big Ten schools to join the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues. He spent three years with the Monarchs, and was a roommate of Ernie Banks on the team, before the Yankees signed him. Soon after signing with the Bronx Bombers, Howard was drafted into service with the U.S. Army during the Korean Conflict.

The Yankees signed Howard, primarily an outfielder with the Monarchs, after seeing him catch in an exhibition game. Though only four years younger than Berra, he was viewed as Yogi’s replacement, which would often lead to clubhouse squabbles, but that was not Yogi’s stance at all.

He headed off the race question first and foremost.

“They can die next to me over there,” Berra said, referring to Black soldiers serving in the military. “They should be able to strike out next to me here!”

While the quote is humorous, it’s made even more so as Yogi has one of the lowest strikeout rates of any hitter who has played the majority of his career after the integration of baseball in 1947. He struck out in 4.9% of his plate appearances over his career.

Yogi invested himself in training Howard on the nuances of work behind the plate. Howard later stated that Yogi was gracious but also stern in his efforts of teaching, not accepting just a job done, but expecting a job done exceptionally well.

Berra would split time at catcher and in left field with Howard for multiple seasons before Howard took over as the primary catcher in 1961.

When Berra returned home from his WWII service, he filed paperwork for the Purple Heart. That paperwork never got processed, however, despite those who served alongside Yogi testifying to the validity of his injury and merit for the award. He passed away in 2015, never having received the Purple Heart that he had earned through service in August of 1944, more than 70 years prior.

Now, as we acknowledge the 80th anniversary of the sacrifices of those who were there on that day, June 6, 1944, Berra’s granddaughter Lindsay continues to fight to get her grandfather the recognition that he deserved for his bravery in service.

“He’s very humble. He didn’t need an award, he had the scar to prove it,” Lindsay said. “He never actually got his Purple Heart, never got the medal. I’m going to keep ringing this bell until someone actually helps me.”

With all of the evidence, it seems it’s time to right the wrong and recognize Yogi Berra for the honor and bravery he displayed — and carried forth the rest of his life.

Benjamin Chase is a reporter for a rural newspaper in South Dakota. He also is a co-editor for Here’s the Pitch, writes about baseball on his Medium site, and is the co-host of the Pallazzo Prospects podcast each week. He can be found on most social media services under @biggentleben.