Jerry Helzner is a
lifelong baseball fan. Like most Phillies followers he has a special
love for Richie Ashburn...
"I became a fan of Phillies centerfielder and speedster Richie Ashburn when I found out that we shared the same birthday".
Here is a story he told several times as a longtime Phillies broadcaster.
"Richie was chosen by the newly formed New York Mets in a draft that was part of big league expansion in 1962. He joined a ragtag group of players who had never been teammates before,"
"In one of the first games, Richie called for a pop-fly to shallow center field,"
'I got it. I got it,' he yelled,"
"But shortstop Elio Chacon, who didn’t speak English, crashed into him and the ball fell to the turf,"
"In the dugout,
manager Casey Stengel told Richie to just yell 'Yo lo tengo, yo lo
tengo' (I got it in Spanish) and Chacon will get out of the way,"
"So when the situation happened again, Richie yelled 'Yo lo tengo' and sure enough Chacon backed off."
"Just in time
for 230-pound leftfielder Jim Hickman – who didn’t speak a word of
Spanish -- to crash into Richie and send him sprawling to the turf"