LITTLE FALLS, N.J. – Yogi Berra is most often remembered for his earnest and unintentionally hilarious views on life, but his baseball acumen was legendary, according to someone who is fairly well versed on the subject.

“There’s a lot of stuff that people giggle about with Yogi, but when he opens his mouth and talks about baseball, you’d better listen,” former Yankees manager Joe Torre said at the reopening of Berra’s museum in northern New Jersey.

The Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center reopened after a nine-month, $3.2 million renovation. Among the new features is an interactive exhibit gallery that includes Berra’s 10 championship rings and the jersey he wore when he caught Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

According to museum director David Kaplan, Berra didn’t think to hold on to the jersey at the end of the season, and it was passed on to another player who was trying out for the Yankees the next year, as was the custom at the time. It eventually made its way to a public auction and was bought last year by a collector for $600,000.

“If I’d known how much it was worth, I would have kept it,” Berra said with a chuckle.

The photographs and artifacts from Berra’s career underscore how much professional sports have changed: His first minor-league contract is displayed, for all of $90 per month with a $500 bonus if he lasted for the whole season.

Other pictures show Berra and Yankee teammate Phil Rizzuto working at a men’s clothing store in Newark in the offseason.

The Berra museum opened in the late 1990s on the campus of Montclair State University. In addition to the baseball exhibits, it offers children’s educational programs that focus on sportsmanship and social justice.