Frank Thomas, Power-Hitting Original Met, Dies at 93

One day, when Thomas was being doubled up after evidently trying to hit the sign, if not slam the ball over it, Stengel shouted from the dugout, “Ya wanna be a sailor, join the Navy!”

Thomas was also remembered for his part in one of the loopier episodes of the Mets’ fledgling years.

Richie Ashburn, who would be inducted into the Hall of Fame for his play with the Philadelphia Phillies, was in center field for the Mets, alongside Thomas in left. The shortstop was Elio Chacon, a Venezuelan player who knew little if any English.

The way the story went, Ashburn became frustrated by his inability to communicate with Chacon over who would take over when a pop fly was hit to shallow left-center field. The Mets outfielder Joe Christopher, who was bilingual, suggested a solution: Ashburn should shout “I got it” in Spanish when he wanted to make the catch.

It was “Yo la tengo,” Christopher told him, and so Ashburn passed along the signal to Chacon.

One day, Ashburn told Sports Illustrated in 1992, a short fly ball descended, and “I see him whipping out from shortstop like a little kid on a scooter. So I yell, ‘Yo la tengo! Yo la tengo!’ And Elio puts on the brakes.”

Just then, Thomas came barreling in from left field, attempting to catch the ball, and collided with Ashburn as it fell safely. No one had told Thomas about “Yo la tengo.”

In the early 1980s, the New Jersey musicians Ira Kaplan and his wife, Georgia Hubley, formed a rock band. Kaplan, a Mets fan since he was a youngster, had read about the Thomas-Ashburn-Chacon mix-up. He called the band Yo La Tengo, and the name stuck. The band has remained active to this day.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/sports/baseball/frank-thomas-dead.html