"It ain’t over till it’s over,” was one of the more famous “Yogi-isms” attributed to Hall-of-Fame baseball player Yogi Berra.

Unfortunately, it is now over.

Lawrence Peter Berra, perhaps the most loved of the New York Yankee greats, died Tuesday at age 90.

Mr. Berra would insist his famous line, issued when the New Yorks Mets he was managing were trailing badly in the 1973 National League race, was misquoted. His actuals words, he said, were, “It isn’t over until it’s over.” In any event, it turned out things weren’t over. The Mets rallied to win the pennant.

It became increasingly tough as the years passed to separate the myth from the reputation when it came to sayings attributed to the Yankee great. The sayings include, “Ninety percent of this game is half mental,” and “You can observe a lot by watching.”

The confusion led Mr. Berra to co-author the wonderfully titled, “I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said.”

Physically, he was a contradiction. A squat, 5-foot-7, he didn't look like an exceptional athlete, but he was.

Playing the demanding position of catcher for much of his career, Mr. Berra was a 15-time All-Star, a member of a record 10 World Series Yankees championship teams, and led the Yankees in runs batted in for seven consecutive seasons from the late 1940s to mid-1950s.

Gifted with extraordinary eye-hand coordination, Mr. Berra was, old-timers swear, the greatest bad-ball hitter ever, using a tomahawk swing to make solid contact on balls pitched eyeball high. This ability made him close to impossible to strike out. In 1950, he had 577 at bats, hitting .322, with 28 home runs and 124 RBI, while striking out only 12 times.

Before becoming a hero on the field, he was a true hero off the field, like many in his “Greatest Generation.” A young Mr. Berra set aside his promising baseball career to serve in World War II, a common practice among players at the time, almost unheard of today. Serving in the Navy, he was a gunner’s mate during the D-Day invasion.

His brief Navy career tied Berra to New London when, in 1945, he played baseball at Mercer Field, while assigned locally.

“If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him,” Mr. Berra really did say. No one should try. Yogi was unique.