Richie Ashburn

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Richie Ashburn
Date of birth	March 31, 1927
Place of birth	Tilden, Nebraska
Date of death	September 9, 1997 (age 70)
Place of death	New York, New York
Position(s)	CF
College	None Attended
Awards	1958 NL Batting Champion 1955 NL Batting Champion
Retired #s	Philadelphia Phillies #1
Statistics	BaseballAlmanac
Team(s) as a Player
1948 – 1959 1960 - 1961 1962	Philadelphia Phillies Chicago Cubs New York Mets
Baseball Hall of Fame, 1995

Don Richard "Richie" Ashburn (March 19, 1927 — September 9, 1997), also known by the nickname Whitey, was an American center fielder in Major League Baseball. He was born in Tilden, Nebraska. From his youth on a farm, he grew up to become a professional outfielder and veteran broadcaster for the Philadelphia Phillies, and one of the most beloved sports figures in Philadelphia history.

Ashburn spent 12 of his 15 major-league seasons as the Phillies' center fielder (from 1948 through 1959, one of the famous "Whiz Kids"), during which he led the National League twice in batting average (.308 lifetime batting average) and routinely led the league in fielding percentage. He played for the Chicago Cubs in 1960 and 1961.

Upon his retirement from the infamous 1962 New York Mets, he became a radio and TV color commentator for the Phillies starting in 1963, where he was paired for 27 seasons with the 2002 Ford C. Frick Award-winning broadcaster Harry Kalas, who joined the Phillies in 1971. During that time, Ashburn and Kalas became best friends. Ashburn also regularly wrote for The Philadelphia Bulletin and, later, The Philadelphia Daily News.

Richie Ashburn
is a member of
the Baseball
Hall of Fame

Ashburn was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Hall's Veterans Committee in 1995 and was inducted in the same ceremony with Phillies great Mike Schmidt. Over 25,000 fans, mostly from Philadelphia, traveled to Cooperstown for the ceremony.

Richie Ashburn (left) on the air with Harry Kalas. WPHL-TV 1980.

Ashburn died unexpectedly of a heart attack in New York City at age 70, after broadcasting a Phillies-Mets game at Shea Stadium. A large crowd of fans paid tribute to him, passing by his coffin in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. He is interred in the Gladwyne Methodist Church Cemetery, at Gladwyne, Pennsylvania.

The center-field entertainment area at the Phillies current stadium, Citizens Bank Park, is named Ashburn Alley in his honor.

[edit] Trivia

During an August 17, 1957 game, Ashburn hit a foul ball into the stands that struck spectator Alice Roth, wife of Philadelphia Bulletin sports editor Earl Roth, breaking her nose. When play resumed, Ashburn fouled off another ball that struck Roth while she was being carried off in a stretcher.

The band Yo La Tengo takes its name from a 1962 Mets anecdote involving Ashburn. Frequently, on short flies to center or left-center, center fielder Ashburn would collide with shortstop Elio Chacón. 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 left fielder Frank Thomas, who didn't speak a word of Spanish, slammed into Ashburn.

Ashburn had the most hits (1,875) during the 1950s.

[edit] External links

Baseball Hall of Fame
Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
Baseball Library
The Deadball Era

Preceded by Willie Mays	National League Batting Champion 1955	Succeeded by Hank Aaron
Preceded by Stan Musial	National League Batting Champion 1958	Succeeded by Hank Aaron