Tony & Bernie's "Big Apple" Stash - April 2010

In an effort to avoid being bested by their pal Leela, Tony and Bernie (the lovable twins from Mike DeNero’s Neighborhood) allow me to present Tony and Bernie’s “Big Apple” Stash. As the lads are twins, and are usually forced to share, why stop at toys, snacks, and sportscards – they will also take turns authoring this column, a monthly ode to their favorite vintage sportscards picturing New York legends. This month, Bernie takes a stab at waxing poetic about one of his all-time favorite Yankees. Please pardon his spelling skills and the liberties he takes with his recollections – he’s only five-years-old. Enjoy!

The Good Ol’ Days

by Bernie

You heard from my twin brother, Tony, last month. I think he did a pretty good job tellin’ ya about dat 1966 Topps Joe Willie Namath. My turn again dis month – and boy, yer in for a treat! For dis month, I wanna tell you about one of my faves – the 1951 Bowman Yogi Berra.

Yogi is one of them Yankees who played a long time in the heyday of da National Pastime (the late 1940s through the early 1960s). Since he played in dat great time period, he’s got a lot of awesome and cool cards – the ’50 Bowman, ’53 Topps, ’53 Bowman, and so on. Too many to name, actually. Notice that I didn’t say his 1952 Topps cards was a good one – dat’s because dat card stinks. The picture is terrible. It don’t even look like Yogi. It looks like some dopey drunk with his pie hole open waitin’ to get a smack in da chops – but it don’t look like my man Yogi.

I think out of all da Yogi cards, the 1951 Bowman is da best. Take a look at that mug – he just looks like a Yogi! But even more important; he looks like a happy Yogi. Just one look at him and you think that he’s thinkin’, “Man, life is great – I’m Yogi Berra and I’m da best catcher in baseball, I play in Yankee Stadium in front of da best fans in da world, I’m a Yankee through and through, and I’m a winner!”

Yep, that ’51 Yogi is awesome. If you don’t have one in your card box, it’s time you parted with some dough and picked one up. I got this one a few months back off my man Mike DeNero. I haggled with him on price a bit and he let me Windex the card displays in his store for a little extra discount, but it was worth it. For dis card, it wouldda been worth washin’ his car – or even his dog!