Fenech: Jim Leyland loses his hero, friend Yogi Berra

Before they became friends, before the conversations in the visiting manager's office at Yankee Stadium, Yogi Berra was Jim Leyland's hero.

"It was pretty simple," said Leyland, who grew up in small-town Ohio idolizing Berra.

"He was a catcher, and I was a catcher. He wasn't very big, and I wasn't very big. He was a left-handed hitter and a good hitter, and I was a right-handed hitter and a bad hitter."

Berra, the colorful Yankees legend, died early Wednesday morning. He was 90.

Leyland found out in a 1 a.m. text message from Berra's caretaker.

"I didn't want you to read about this in the paper," she told him. "He thought so much of you."

Leyland saw beyond Berra's "Yogiisms."

"We just had a special relationship," Leyland said. "He was just a special guy. He was probably a character to most people. But to me, he became a friend. He was more than a character. We talked about very serious stuff and about baseball and different things, and so it was probably different than how somebody would perceive Yogi."

Berra won 10 World Series with the Yankees during his 19-year Hall of Fame career, which included 15 consecutive All-Star appearances and three American League Most Valuable Player awards. He is considered one of the best catchers — if not the best catcher — in baseball history.

Berra was a career .285 hitter, and Leyland would laugh every time he asked about his hitting approach.

"Well," Berra would say, "I just looked at the ball, and if I could take a good swing at it, I swung at it."

As Berra starred with the Yankees in the 1950s, Leyland followed from afar — his first baseball glove was a Yogi Berra catcher's glove — and finally caught up with his childhood idol in 1982 when the White Sox opened their season in the Bronx.

It was Leyland's rookie year in the majors, working as the White Sox third-base coach, but he could have just as easily been a veteran in Berra's eyes.

"He never looked at me as a minor leaguer or a nonplayer or anything," Leyland said. "He always treated me with the utmost respect. Obviously he was a star and I was a backup catcher in the minor leagues, and all of a sudden I was in the big leagues, but he treated me like I had been a good player with the Yankees, almost like I was a teammate of his."

They hit it off through many talks and much time spent with mutual friends like longtime Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer and current Tigers bench coach Gene Lamont.

They would get dinners together. Berra would wish Leyland's wife, Katie, a happy birthday every year. And he would step into the visiting manager's office every time the Tigers were in New York.

The one time he won't forget, Leyland said, was before Game 5 of the 2011 AL Division Series. They had a quick conversation.

"He says, 'Well, Jim. Good luck. May the best team win, kid,' " Leyland said.

Leyland has met many people in his life, important people like presidents.

But growing up in Perrsyburg, Ohio, he never imagined that one day he would meet Berra, who represented his baseball-playing dreams.

"I couldn't believe it, to be honest with you," Leyland said. "Here's your childhood hero and your life hero, and when I was a little kid, I never thought I'd meet Yogi Berra. So to end up not only meeting him but become good friends, it was special."

And that friendship, not the cartoon-like character Berra became or the coined catchphrases that remain, is what lingers when Leyland remembers the larger-than-life man who left a legacy as one of baseball's all-time legends.

"He was just one heck of a guy," Leyland said. "But to me, the character part wasn't as prevalent as it was with other people. To me, he was just a friend. A really good friend."

Contact Anthony Fenech: afenech@freepress.com . Follow him on Twitter @anthonyfenech . Check out our latest Tigers podcast at freep.com/tigerspodcast or on iTunes. And download our free Tigers Xtra app on Apple and Android!