The Captain shared some touching words about one of the greatest baseball players and people of all time - the late Yogi Berra.
Prior to attending his funeral in Montclair, N.J. on Tuesday, former Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter paid respect to Berra by penning a moving tribute to the 13-time World Series Champion, who passed away of natural causes on Sept. 22.
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"It is with a heavy heart that I attend Yogi Berra's memorial service today," Jeter wrote on his Players Tribune page in a post entitled, 'The Yogi I Knew.' "But I hope it's also a chance to celebrate his life. Yogi's baseball numbers speak for themselves. He was a great Yankee, a great man and a great husband to Carmen, whom he praised every chance he got. To me, he was a great friend. "
Berra was 90 when he passed away after touching many lives in and outside of baseball. At his memorial service, which was attended by several sports figures, Berra's remains were placed by the altar beneath a gold catcher's mitt, according to SportsNet.ca.
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Former Yankees manager Joe Torre delivered the eulogy in public, but Jeter felt it was fitting to eulogize Berra through text on his website. Berra is known for his catch phrases, but Jeter also recognized other facets about him.
"When I think of Yogi Berra, I see him sitting next to me at my locker or in the training room," he wrote. "When he came to the stadium, we would catch up, usually in the sacred hour of down time before the first pitch. Everyone remembers how good he was at talking. What I remember about Yogi is how good he was at listening."
Jeter also shared some nice anecdotes about Berra, including one funny story about World Series titles. Jeter, who won five Fall Classics in his career, said that he chastised the Hall of Fame catcher by saying five of his rings didn't count because there were no playoffs for them, only the World Series.
Jeter fondly recalled Berra's response.
"If you're having trouble with math, you can come over to my house and count the rings yourself."
The baseball world lost a great man in Berra, but Jeter won't forget the impact he had.
"Yogi understood something simple about the sport: baseball is meant to be fun," he wrote. "Any time he was around, he made it that way. You can't get through a 162-game baseball schedule without keeping things light. On our championship teams, that was one of the keys. Yogi's mission was to put a smile on people's faces, and he succeeded."
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