June 26, 2012

Thank you for your concern, but I’m doing just fine.  Have been inundated with messages wondering why there were no posts on June 23 and June 25, despite that fact that Richie Ashburn, Frank Thomas and Elio Chacon were in the starting lineup for the 1962 Mets,  thereby raising our hopes that this could be the day 50 years ago on which the “yo la tengo” heard ’round the world was cried.  But checking the fine print, we discover  Richie Ashburn not in center field but in right, removing these games from consideration.  (Playing center field is Joe Christopher, the man who allegedly translated “I’ve got it” as “Yo la tengo.”  For an incident that may never have occurred, there are certainly a lot of facts associated with it.)

 

Which is not to say that there has been a lack of historic baseball in my life.  As part of our mission to get to the bottom of this anecdote, Georgia, James and I found ourselves at Chicago’s Wrigley Field last night and witnessed three incredible events, a minimum of one of which occurring for the first time ever: Jon Rauch giving up four runs in 1/3 of an inning (the 7th), despite allowing no hits; the Mets committing two three-base errors in one inning (the 7th again); and John McEntire attending a professional sporting event (he stayed the whole game, though he required my prodding to stand for the 7th inning stretch).