Gary Sanchez and Yogi Berra: great hitting catchers?

Gary Sanchez hit a three run homer in the first inning of last night's Yankee 11-4 win in Baltimore. Sanchez was 1 for 5. Sanchez has 14 home runs in only 118 at bats and some mention was made during the game of Yankee Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra having hit 14 home runs in a comparable number of games or something. Former catcher John Flaherty (career OPS .667) stated that Sanchez (2019 OPS .988) was hitting great.

Both items surprised me:
- I didn't know that Yogi had ever hit homers at a high rate
- I thought that most of what Sanchez has done in 2019 was hit home runs:
OPB: .336
SLG: .653 (2 2B, 1 3B, 14 HR)

If the year that Yogi had 14 home runs early was mentioned I did not hear it but I decided to look. I knew that Yogi had set the AL record for home runs by a catcher with 30 ... twice, so those seasons were the obvious places to start. I checked 1952 and that was clearly not it but 1956 quickly became the probable season.

The 1956 Yankee season (154 games) started April 17. In 2019 (162 games) it started March 28.

Tuesday, June 5, 1956

Attendance: 15,053

Venue: Yankee Stadium I

Game Duration: 2:23

Night Game, on grass

Kansas City Athletics (18-25) 7, Yankees 4 (29-17)

HR: Yogi Berra (14, off Lou Kretlow, 4th inn, 0 on, 2 outs to RF); Mickey Mantle (21, off Lou Kretlow, 8th inn, 1 on, 2 outs to RF); Joe Collins (3, off Lou Kretlow, 9th inn, 0 on, 0 outs to RF).

Righty starter Lou Kretlow pitched into the 9th inning and was replaced after the leadoff homer by Collins.

Yogi was in the middle of his second 1956 streak of homering in four consecutive games. Yogi would homer in each of the next two games, wins against Kansas City, to give him 16 home runs in 48 games, five behind Mickey Mantle who would go on to hit 52. The 2019 Yankees have played 47 games (30-17).

Yogi hit only two more home runs in June and one in July. Click this link for his career home run log. In 1956 at age 31 Yogi Berra started 134 games at catcher, completing 122; he played the first four innings of one game in left field. In 2019 at age 26 Gary Sanchez has started and completed 25 games at catcher and 5 as designated hitter (DH), which started in 1973.

		BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
Mantle	June 5, 1956	.407	.495	.837	1.332
Berra	June 5, 1956	.338	.422	.719	1.142
Mantle	1956	.353	.464	.705	1.169
Berra	1956	.298	.378	.534	.911
Sanchez	May 21, 2019	.263	.336	.653	.988

Mantle was on his way to the triple crown, leading not just the AL, but both major leagues in BA, HR, RBI.

Let's see if Sanchez can balance his numbers more and finish with strong numbers overall.