There aren’t many Yankees fans in the world who are older than the Yankees franchise itself. Bernando LaPallo is one of them.

Born on Aug. 17, 1901, LaPallo is 111 years old and has been a Yankees fan for as long as he can remember, which is a pretty long time. The Yankees became the Yankees in 1913.

So the team decided to honor its oldest fan by bringing him out to a game Saturday and letting him meet some of the players beforehand. They even tweeted his meeting with Derek Jeter:


The captain catches up with the #Yankees oldest fan, Bernando LaPallo. Bernando is 111 years old. vine.co/v/b3azDV1dMjM— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 1, 2013

How old is LaPallo? The American League is also 111 years old. He has met Babe Ruth. He earned a degree in culinary arts from the Sorbonne in Paris in 1928, lived in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance and fought in World War II. He has had two books published after the age of 100. And he is just as active today as many people 80 years younger than him.

“Being old and shaking in a wheelchair, that’s no good. That’s hell,” LaPallo said. “I’ll get up every morning and I’ll take my walk, come back, I can shave, I can bathe, I can do everything you can do.”