  Yogi Brand (private collection)   Many people today are still under the misapprehension that the late Lawrence Peter Berra (1925‒2015) received his nickname “Yogi” because of a resemblance to an eastern yoga master. He was a catcher, after all, and spent most of his playing career in a squat. No one who ever heard Berra interviewed on radio or TV would mistake him for one of elevated spirituality, so maybe his sobriquet was one of those baseball things where a player is christened with a nickname which is the exact opposite of his nature. For example, pitcher Sloppy Thurston got his nickname because he was an immaculate dresser. That sort of thing. In point of fact, however, the tag “yogi” had nothing to do with either. In the St. Louis neighborhood of The Hill, where Berra grew up, a “yogi” was a name given by kids to any eccentric, oddball or character from the area. Berra certainly fit that bill. 