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Latino players recruited by U.S. sports teams continue to face a language barrier in an area where communication is make or break.

For example, Reds player Johnny Cueto, born in the Dominican Republic, won’t give post-game interviews in English because he’s still “practicing.” For now, he speaks through interpreters, though teammate Arthur Rhodes says he manages to communicate just fine to women when he goes out.

The language barrier presented a problem back in the 1950s and 60s when Latinos were recruited in big numbers to American baseball teams. An article on Cincinnati.com recreates an unfortunate and humorous tale which might explain why the early expansion Mets were notoriously bad.

On short flyballs to center or left-center field, outfielder Richie Ashburn and Venezuelan shortstop Elio Chacon occasionally collided. Chacon spoke little English and had trouble understanding when Ashburn was calling him off the ball.

Ashburn thus learned to say “Yo la tengo,” Spanish for “I’ve got it.” When Ashburn first used the phrase, it worked well in keeping Chacon from running into him. But then one day, Mets left fielder Frank Thomas crashed into Ashburn while chasing a ball.

After the dust settled, Thomas said to Ashburn:

“What the heck is a Yellow Tango?”

A commenter on the article points out that the language barrier in sports is not exclusive to Latinos—baseball players from South Korea and Japan face the same issues and many use translators to communicate.

Read the full article here.