Yogi Berra & Yoo-Hoo

Let me start this post off by saying that Yoo-Hoo is some weird shit. There's just something about chocolate milk that doesn't need to be refrigerated that just isn't right. Plus it's not really milk, it's water. It's actually chocolate water. That's just strange to me.

What be this for may you ask?

That. A 1958 Yogi Berra Yoo-Hoo Matchbook. I acquired this as a little kid back visiting my grandparents. My grandmother keeps EVERYTHING. She has buttons and 1''x1'' pieces of cloth from the '20s "just in case". There's a cork board downstairs that has a bunch of old matchbooks on it and I remember seeing the Berra one and wanting to check it out and touch it and look at it and play with it and...

So my grandfather took it down and I've had it ever since. It's a pretty cool little thing. I don't really do too much with "oddball" stuff. By oddball, I mean non-card things, unless they're close like stamps, coins, promos etc. This fits nicely in a thick top loader, so that's ok with me.

I don't really know too much about this, other than from the "B" word and they don't really tell much either. I looked on the bay for some current or completed listings, nothing. I checked out COMC, even less. Google? Nope. I wish I knew how they were distributed, how common they are, if I could pay off my truck...

There is also a Mickey Mantle version of this, but again I couldn't find anything out if it was more common, rarer, the same.

My favorite part of the matchbook though, is what I see the least, the inside cover.

There's an offer to mail in the cover plus $2.50 to receive a book, "The Yogi Berra Story". Unfortunately I couldn't photo the very best part. Behind the matches, all the way at the bottom, there's a little reminder: "Do not mail matches". I love stupid shit like that. Makes me want to reread "The Origin of Species" over and over and over.

(...Joe)