Editing Yo La Tengo (section)

===Formation and early history, 1984–1985===
[[Ira Kaplan]] and [[Georgia Hubley]] formed the band as a couple in 1984. They chose the name Yo La Tengo, Spanish for "I have it". The name came from a baseball anecdote from the 1962 season, when [[New York Mets]] [[center fielder]] [[Richie Ashburn]] and [[shortstop]] [[Elio Chacón]] collided in the outfield. When Ashburn went for a catch, he would yell, "I got it! I got it!" only to run into Chacón, a [[Venezuela]]n who spoke only Spanish. Ashburn learned to yell, "Yo la tengo! Yo la tengo!" instead. In a later game, Ashburn happily saw Chacón backing off. He relaxed, positioned himself to catch the ball, and was run over by left fielder [[Frank Thomas (NL baseball player)|Frank Thomas]], who understood no Spanish and had missed a team meeting that proposed using the words "Yo la tengo!" as a way to avoid outfield collisions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yolatengo.com/kaplanskorner.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080124075826/http://www.yolatengo.com/kaplanskorner.html|url-status=dead |archive-date=2008-01-24|title=Kaplan's Korner, Episode 1 |publisher=Yolatengo.com |access-date=February 17, 2012 }}</ref> After getting up, Thomas asked Ashburn, "What the hell is a yellow tango?"<ref>{{cite book|first=Fran|last=Zimniuch|title=Richie Ashburn Remembered|publisher=Sports Publishing LLC|date=2005|pages=41–42}}</ref>

Kaplan and Hubley placed an advertisement to recruit other musicians who shared their love for bands such as [[the Soft Boys]], [[Mission of Burma]], and [[Arthur Lee (musician)|Arthur Lee]]'s [[Love (band)|Love]].<ref name=AllMusic /> The group's debut recording was a [[7"]] single, "The River of Water", backed with a cover of Lee's "A House Is Not a Motel", released in late 1985 with [[Dave Schramm (musician)|Dave Schramm]] on lead guitar and [[Dave Rick]] on bass. After recording "Private Doberman" for the Coyote Records compilation ''Luxury Condos Coming to Your Neighborhood Soon'', Rick left the band and was replaced by Mike Lewis, the founding bass player of Boston garage-punk bands [[DMZ (band)|DMZ]] and [[Lyres (band)|Lyres]], who was also a member of Brooklyn [[garage rock]] band [[the A-Bones]] throughout his tenure in YLT.