Has Yogi Berra’s baseball prowess has been overlooked?

There is a new documentary about Yogi’s life called “It Ain’t Over.” See Yogi Berra on the Field: The Case for Baseball Greatness by Lorne Manly of The New York Times. Excerpt:

"Jon Pessah, who wrote the 2020 biography “Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask” (and is not in the film), said the idea that Yogi’s baseball prowess has been overlooked “is 100 percent true.”"

But I wonder who did this overlooking? The article does not say.

Berra was voted to start the All-Star game by the fans each year from 1950-57. Then players, coaches, and managers picked the starters after 1957. He was selected to start 3 more times then. So the fans, players, coaches, and managers did not overlook him

Berra got 67.2% of the Hall of Fame vote in his first year of eligibility. Then 85.6% the next year (75% is needed to make it). So those sports writers seemed to understand how good he was.

For comparison's sake, look at Eddie Mathews, who played most of his career with the Braves and who mainly played in the same time period as Berra. Mathews hit over 500 career HRs and even now is still 23rd all time in career WAR for position players (Berra is tied for 126th, although catching makes it hard to have a long career and pile up big numbers). Mathews got only 32.3% of the Hall of Fame vote in his first year of eligibility and he did not get in until his 5th year with 79.4% of the vote, less than what Berra got.

While he was playing, he won 3 MVP awards (several players have done this with only Barry Bonds getting more than 3-he got 7). Berra also finished in the top 4 in the MVP voting in 4 other seasons. He ranks 17th all-time in MVP shares, a Bill James stat that adds up all the MVP votes a player got in his career. The writers who vote for the MVP award also clearly saw what a good player he was.

Eddie Mathews won no MVP awards, finished in the top 4 only twice and ranks just 150th in career MVP shares.