The '62 Mets. Really, is it possible to compile a series of amusing baseball anecdotes without including something about their famous inepitude? So here goes ...
Richie Ashburn is the center fielder for the Mets, in the last year of his stellar career. Elio Chacon is the shortstop, for reasons unknown to history. Chacon is from Venezuela, and his English is exceedingly limited, and he and Ashburn keep colliding in the pursuit of popups.
Another Met tells Ashburn that the problem is that Chacon doesn't understand when Ashburn yells "I got it." He suggests that Ashburn yell "Yo ma tengo" instead, and Chacon will pull up.
It makes sense to Ashburn, who practices the pronunciation for a while and decides he's ready to roll with it.
Game's going on, and a pop-up is hit into short left center. Ashburn comes in, Chacon goes out. Ashburn yells "Yo ma tengo!" Chacon pulls up and gives Ashburn plenty of room. The center fielder reaches up to catch the ball ...
And gets plowed over by Frank Thomas, the 200-plus pound left fielder, who speaks no Spanish.
Ed
ReplyDeleteYou won't/don't like to post links to the Star Tribune due to the paywall. What do you think of the Free Press going to the same thing?
Nothing better than starting out a cold, freezing rain Sunday morning than a good baseball laugh!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 1: My issue with linking to the Strib now that I don't want to assume that my readers all have access to it. It's the same reason I'm selective about linking to Baseball America stuff. Much of it is subscription only; that I don't link to.
ReplyDeleteI intend to post something on the Freep pay wall and its effect on this blog when I know more. We're supposedly getting a blog function on our platform, but nobody's seen it or even knows diddly about it, so ignorance prevails for now. Tuesday is the day to learn about that, I guess.
If you're looking for criticism of paywalls, look elsewhere. Even if I was opposed to this plan, I wouldn't go public with it (unless I had a Plan B for my livelihood), and I'm not opposed. At all.