Born in Manhattan's Little Italy to a Valencian gravedigger and a Sicilian laundress,[1] he was a three-sport star at White Plains High School, playing football, basketball, and baseball.

[2] He originally signed with the Giants in 1942, and enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces shortly afterward.

[4] Yvars is best remembered as the player on the New York Giants who relayed stolen signals to his teammates awaiting in the batters box during the 1951 pennant-winning season.

[5] In the 1980s, he said he wrote a memoir titled How We Stole the Pennant, but lost his publishing deal, he claimed, when he refused to detail the personal peccadilloes of teammates.

[4] He died in Valhalla, New York from amyloidosis at the age of 84, survived by his wife, Antoinette; his son, David; daughters Diane, Donna and Deborah; a brother, Jack; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.