* Now hear this: Allen Barra

That’s Barra, not Berra, although the confusion would be easy to understand.

Barra is the author, Berra is the subject of this new biography of the Yankees’ Hall of Fame catcher. The writer — whose work has appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal and on-line on Salon.com, crafted this serious-yet-entertaining profile on Berra, a work that took only 40 years from start to finish.

Barra, who also wrote Clearing the Bases: The Greatest Baseball Debates of the Last Century in 2003, goes beyond the goofy quote machine to reveal what a great player Berra was. Is it possible that someone enshrined in Cooeprstown — not to mention his managerial skills and shrewd business sense — could be considered underrated?

In a day when every other book has some connection to steroids and PED, this is a breath of nostalgic fresh air.