This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 5/11/2001.
No face was seen around New York in the 1950s and early ‘60s more than Yogi Berra's, not even the mayor's or Howdy Doody's. Yogi was so popular that he even had a cartoon character, Yogi Bear, named after him. Because Yogi was synonymous with New York and the Yankees, the team's biggest sponsor, Ballantine Beer, featured him in many of its ads, and this one is the mother of all Yogi ads. The 36" x 38" cardboard piece would have filled up any candy store window, or section of the upper deck in Yankee Stadium for that matter. It shows a grinning Yogi in a blue suit set against a light blue background, giving the "hi" sign while raising his catcher's mitt, inside of which is written the words, "Catch Yogi and the Yankees on radio and TV." Underneath the picture it reads, "Sponsored by Ballantine beer." The famous Ballantine three-ring logo (representing "purity," "body," and "flavor") is on the lower right. The piece is in excellent plus condition, with some minor fraying at the corners.