- Dale Berra
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Dale Berra Shortstop, Third Baseman Born: December 13, 1956
Ridgewood, New JerseyBatted: Right Threw: Right MLB debut August 22, 1977 for the Pittsburgh Pirates Last MLB appearance October 4, 1987 for the Houston Astros Career statistics Batting average .236 Home runs 49 Runs batted in 278 Teams Career highlights and awards Dale Anthony Berra (born December 13, 1956 in Ridgewood, New Jersey), is a former Major League Baseball player who primarily played as an infielder from 1977 through 1987. He is the son of Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra.
Contents
Early years
Berra was a highly sought prospect upon his graduation from Montclair High School in Montclair, New Jersey.[citation needed] He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the twentieth overall pick in the 1975 Major League Baseball Draft, and made his major league debut on August 22, 1977 at only twenty years old.[2]
Pittsburgh Pirates
Berra was a member of the 1979 World Series champion Pirates, though he did not receive an at-bat in the post season. A third baseman in the minor leagues, Berra earned playing time at third, second and shortstop his first five seasons in the majors before being handed the starting shortstop job in 1982. That season, he enjoyed career highs in batting average (.263), hits (139), runs scored (64) and runs batted in (61).
New York Yankees
Yogi Berra was named manager of the Yankees prior to the start of the 1984 season. Following the season, the Yankees acquired the younger Berra, along with Jay Buhner and Alfonso Pulido for Steve Kemp and Tim Foli, whom Berra had replaced as the Pirates starting shortstop. Dale became the first son to play for his father in the major leagues since Earle Mack appeared in a total of 125 games for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1937 and 1939 under Connie Mack.[citation needed] Dale was batting .343 until his father was fired sixteen games into the 1985 season and replaced by Billy Martin. Under Martin, Dale was returned to a back-up infielder role, and his batting average fell to .229 for the season.
Pittsburgh drug trials
Main article: Pittsburgh drug trialsOn September 9, 1985,[3] Berra testified during the cocaine distribution trial of Curtis Strong that he shared cocaine with Lee Lacy, John Milner, Dave Parker, Lee Mazzilli and Rod Scurry while all were members of the Pirates, and that his own drug use peaked while he was injured during the 1984 season.[4]
On February 28, 1986 Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth handed down suspensions to eleven players, seven of whom received a full season suspension, including Berra. All avoided the suspensions by agreeing to donate a small percentage of their 1986 salaries to a drug program and do community service work. The players who received the full year suspensions were allowed to play under the condition that they donated ten percent of their base salaries to drug-related community service, submitted to random drug testing, and contributed 100 hours of drug-related community service.
Houston Astros
Lou Piniella was named the Yankees' manager in 1986 and Berra was released on July 27. Shortly afterwards, he was signed by the Houston Astros where Yogi Berra was a coach. Dale spent the rest of the 1986 season with Houston's triple-A affiliate.
After spending most of 1987 with triple-A Tucson, Berra debuted with the Astros on August 15. He batted .178 in 19 games for the Astros, and was released at the end of the season. He spent the 1988 season in the Baltimore Orioles' system before retiring.
Personal life
In April 1989, Berra was indicted in a drug raid on an operation that allegedly distributed $15,000 to $20,000 worth of cocaine each week in Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Union and his hometown, Essex County, New Jersey.[5] In 1990, Berra was running a construction company in Cranford, New Jersey.[6]
Berra played more games than any son of a Hall-of-Famer, topping Dick Sisler (853 to 799). His older brother, Larry, played briefly in the New York Mets organization,[7] and his older brother, Tim, played with the Baltimore Colts in 1974.[8]
Seasons Games AB Runs Hits 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO Avg. Slg. Fld% 11 853 2553 236 603 109 9 49 278 32 210 422 .236 .344 .956 See also
- List of second generation Major League Baseball players
- List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences
References
- ^ "Dale Berra from the Chronology". BaseballLibrary.com. http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Dale_Berra_1956&page=chronology.
- ^ "San Diego Padres 1, Pittsburgh Pirates 0". Baseball-reference.com. 1977-08-22. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT197708220.shtml.
- ^ "Sport: The Cocaine Agonies Continue". Time Magazine. 1985-09-23. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,959943,00.html.
- ^ "Dale Berra Tells of Drug Use". Gainesville Sun. 1985-09-10. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1320&dat=19850909&id=orMRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rOkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5584,2954331.
- ^ "Dale Berra Is Indicted". New York Times. 1989-08-25. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/25/sports/dale-berra-is-indicted.html?pagewanted=1.
- ^ "Like father, like some sons". The Spokesman-Review. 1990-07-05. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19900704&id=rFslAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MfEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7046,3073844.
- ^ "Larry Berra". Baseball-reference.com BP Bullpen. http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Larry_Berra.
- ^ "Tim Berra". Pro-Football-reference.com. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BerrTi20.htm.
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
Pittsburgh Pirates 1979 World Series Champions 3 Phil Garner | 5 Bill Madlock | 6 Rennie Stennett | 8 Willie Stargell (World Series MVP) | 10 Tim Foli | 14 Ed Ott | 15 Enrique Romo | 16 Steve Nicosia | 17 Lee Lacy | 18 Omar Moreno | 19 Jim Rooker | 22 Bert Blyleven | 23 Grant Jackson | 24 Mike Easler | 25 Bruce Kison | 26 Jim Bibby | 27 Kent Tekulve | 28 Bill Robinson | 34 John Milner | 35 Manny Sanguillén | 36 Matt Alexander | 39 Dave Parker | 43 Don Robinson | 45 John Candelaria
Manager 7 Chuck Tanner
Coaches: 32 Joe Lonnett | 42 Alex Monchak | 48 Bob Skinner | 57 Harvey HaddixRegular season • National League Championship Series Categories:- Houston Astros players
- New York Yankees players
- Pittsburgh Pirates players
- Baseball players suspended for drug offenses
- Baseball players from New Jersey
- American people of Italian descent
- 1956 births
- Living people
- Major League Baseball shortstops
- Major League Baseball third basemen
- Niagara Falls Pirates players
- Charleston Patriots players
- Columbus Clippers players
- Portland Beavers players
- Tucson Toros players
- Rochester Red Wings players
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