Jack Santelli came away from the Yogi Berra Museum with a whole new appreciation for the all-time Yankee great, not just as an amazing ballplayer but a true American hero.
The attraction, founded 25 years ago by friends and admirers of Berra, is on the campus of Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., where Berra and his wife, Carmen, raised their three sons Larry, Tim and Dale.
“I've been wanting to come here for years,” said Santelli, who visited with his son-in-law, Lance Del Plato. “We're big baseball fans. I'm a student of the game, have a pretty good knowledge of the game and there's a lot of great things here I never knew of. I really like the pictures and different paintings, a lot of artifacts.”
As a retired, longtime U.S. Marine Corps gunnery sergeant, Santelli was especially impressed with an exhibit detailing Berra's World War II military service as
