I still remember it. It was the first day of class. As usual, I read from my roll sheet, taking care to pronounce the names correctly. Then it happened. I read “Jeff Ashburn.” “Here,” said a mid-range male voice. “I have a fondness for that name,” I retorted, and quickly added that, as fan of the Philadelphia Phillies, Richie Ashburn was one of my childhood favorites. “That’s my uncle!” “Really?” “Yes!”
Richie Ashburn: A Baseball Life. Each of their voices was unique. I can still hear them in my head when I am quiet. But Ashburn had been a player and always had that special way of making the game come alive. >Ashburn died of a heart attack in at age 70 after broadcasting a Phillies-Mets game at Shea Stadium in 1997. He was the star center-fielder for the famed “Whiz Kids,” who in the 1950s rescued the franchise from a truly terrible string of decades in which they were the doormats of the National League.
One oft-told story is that on short flies to center or left-center, center fielder Ashburn would collide with shortstop Elio Chacon. Chacón, from Venezuela, spoke little English and had difficulty understanding when Ashburn was calling him off the ball. To remedy matters, someone in the Mets organization taught Ashburn to say "Yo la tengo," Spanish for "I’ve got it." When Ashburn first used this phrase, it worked fine in keeping Chacón from running into him. But then left fielder Frank Thomas, who didn't speak a word of Spanish, slammed into Ashburn. After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn "What the heck is a Yellow Tango?
Richard Ashburn (1927-1997) hailed from Nebraska and was 21 when he arrived in the majors in 1948. He hit .333 with a league-leading 32 stolen bases, earned the first of his five All-Star berths, and was named Rookie of the Year by The Sporting News. Two years later, Ashburn led the Phillies to their first World Series appearance in 35 years.
Overshadowed by other great outfielders of his era—Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Duke Snider—Ashburn never got the national attention he deserved. But for the record, Ashburn hit over .300 nine times, including his first and last years in the majors. In between, he won a pair of batting titles. Ashburn finished his career with the expansion New York Mets in 1962, one of baseball’s truly horrible teams (40 – 122). It must have been a tough ending to a brilliant career for “Whitey,” though he took with the same measure of grace that characterized his personal life. “Whitey” finally made it to the Hall of Fame when the Veterans Committee voted him in on March 7, 1995.
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