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Ira Kaplan of the band Yo La Tengo recently interviewed original Met Ed Kranepool for his band’s website, which you can watch by clicking here.
In the interview, Kranepool relays an anecdote from the Mets inaugural 1962 season, which became the inspiration for the band’s name.
…as a big yo la fan, i have heard this story cited by a number of sources over the years, including Richie Ashburn, who played center field on the club, as well as Ralph Kiner, who was an announcer for WOR-TV at the time…
…anyhow, Kaplan’s Korner is a nice homage…not surprisingly, they are huge Mets fans, to boot…so check them out, if you haven’t already…
…thanks to Jessie for the link…
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Now I like Yo la Tengo for 3 reasons:
1) good music
2) hoboken
3) met fans
Perfect.
I heard YLT interviewed on Sirius earlier this year. They are huge Met fans. He talked about how he loves watching Beltran play CF.
Naturally Yo La Tengo translates to “I’ve Got It” which Ashburn learned so that he could call off Elio Chacón in the outfield, who understood little English.
Huskey makes the turn and heads for home!
Let’s hear it for Hoboken. If you want to see yo la; every year they play all the eight nights of Hanukkah at Maxwells, Hoboken. It’s pretty great, and so is Maxwell’s…
I saw Tim Barry at Maxwell’s in October. Nice place. My buddies and I drank Red Stripes until our bladders burst, then stumbled over to Benny Tudino’s for some huge slices. Good times.
In 2006, Yo La Tengo put out a CD called “Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics” which includes them covering “Meet the Mets”.
The CD was really interesting, by the way. They do a yearly fundraiser on WFUV, where you can call in and donate, and you get to request a song. They play the song, without looking up the music or lyrics, from memory. The CD is a collection of songs they played during fundraisers, and yes, one of them is “Meet The Mets”. It’s pretty good.
Lol:
When Ashburn went for a catch, he would scream, “I got it! I got it!” only to run into the 160-pound Chacón, who spoke only Spanish. Ashburn learned to yell, “¡Yo la tengo! ¡Yo la tengo!” which is “I have it” in Spanish. In a later game, Ashburn happily saw Chacón backing off. He relaxed, positioned himself to catch the ball, and was instead run over by 200-pound left fielder Frank Thomas, who understood no Spanish. After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn “What the heck is a Yellow Tango?”
Yo la Yo-han!
By the way, my wife and I took a trip to Italy this year, and days after Glavine’s implosion, we wound up taking a water taxi from our hotel in Venice to the airport with none other than Ed Kranepool and his wife. He was a real gentleman, and provided the best possible consolation for me. Man, he was just awesome. This video is a perfect example of his coolness, and willingness to play along. Lots of today’s athletes could learn from his ability to not take himself too seriously.
Being a massive Indie fan and Met fan for ages it’s nice to see some side note stuff here, Matt & Co.
By the way, I was in the Prospect Park band shell last year seeing Yo La Tengo and Ira yelled out to the crowd:
“ANYONE KNOW THE SCORE OF THE METS GAME!?!”
Good peeps that Ira.