Charlie Silvera: Playing in the Shadow of Yogi Berra

Charlie Silvera was born in San Francisco in 1924, grew up in the Mission District, and attended St. Ignatius High School before signing with the Yankees for a $2,500 bonus in 1942. He would go on to languish for eight full seasons as a backup to Yogi Berra. Although he received six World Series championship rings along the way, Silvera must always wonder what he could have done had Berra not been the starter for all those great Yankee teams of the 40's and 50's. Silvera went on to coach and scout for a variety of MLB clubs and currently resides in the beautiful hills of Millbrae in Northern California and works as a scout for the Cubs.

Relationship with Berra: "In 1948, I was called up late in the season because
Nairhas got hurt. Yogi had been playing the outfield that season, so they brought him in, made him the number one catcher, and I became his backup. Yogi had natural talent, and Bill Dickey refined him. In 1950, I didn't get to bat until June 17th. We were the best of friends. We ran around together, we got along great."

Yogi-isms: "A lot of them were obviously made up, mostly by reporters, but a lot of them he said on his own. A few of them happened when I was in his company and they never got recorded. One time, we were going to go, on an off-day, to a dinner to speak. The Yankee PR guy came by and asked Yogi, do you want to go to this affair, you know, you have an off day. Charlie's gonna go. So Yogi said - what are they gonna give us? And I told him, well, I think they're gonna give us a .20 Gauge Remington. And, Yogi, said, Great! I've always wanted a camera!"