I met a man yesterday and ordinarily, I wouldn't remember his name, but he was wearing a Baltimore Ravens cap and was called Aaron Jordan. I joked that he'd been named for two sports superstars, neither of whom ever played for the Ravens. He laughed and took his kids into the museum. He noodled on the piano a little bit while his family was there. It's an interesting museum, and not only because it has two pianos. It has almost everything but baseball. Today is not about the museum. Today is about baseball.
Baseball! Full of stories and wonderful names.
The first name I'll mention is Randy Arozarena, who, for unknown reasons, had a history of being especially effective against my home team, the Baltimore Orioles. I like his name as a member of a new team, because I was delighted when he was traded last year from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Seattle Mariners. The Orioles don't face the Mariners often during the season, not like they do the Rays, who are part of the American League East division. Now that every team faces every team for at least one series each season, the Orioles will deal with Arozarena the Mariner 6 times this year, (barring trade or injury), as opposed to 13 games they'll play against Tampa Bay.
It's not that I don't like the Mariners- in fact, in last night's game, one of the Seattle broadcasters demonstrated one of the reasons I love baseball so much- the stories. Here's the scenario: the broadcasters are talking about weather, as they often do and the elder of them- I've looked him up; I'm surmising it's Rick Rizzs- talks about an Opening Day game in Cleveland in 2007 where blizzard conditions made the ump call the game in the 5th inning, everyone went back to their hotels, where the blizzard continued, cancelling the other 3 games in the series as well. This played havoc with the schedule that season, as the Mariners had to make up all four of those games, tacking one game on to the front end of every East Coast road trip, running out of time at the end of the season, so that eventually, Cleveland played that last makeup game in Seattle, where the Mariners were the 'visiting' team in their own stadium.
At any rate, the soon- to- retire Rizzs was talking about Opening Day not just as a phenomenon of weather, but of pitching. He was comparing last night's pitcher, who has a very basebally name- in my opinion, the second baseballest name in the contemporary game- to the Mariners' pitcher on that opening day in 2007. The relevant name is Emmerson Hancock. He threw six no-hit innings last night against the Cleveland Guardians, including a career-high nine strikeouts. Oh, baseball is wonderful- when Hancock got to five strikeouts, the broadcasters started talking about his career high of seven strikeouts in a game, which he'd done three times in previous seasons. Hancock got to six strikeouts in that game, the broadcasters were excited to think he might equal that seven-strikeout high. When he did, they were jubilant. Imagine, then, when he got to EIGHT strikeouts in that game, setting a new career high, how very enthused were the broadcasters in the booth. Hancock getting to nine was just icing.
Another baseball name I love belongs to relief pitcher Jonathan Loáisiga, formerly of the New York Yankees. What's that? It's pronounced 'Lowizikah,' at least when Yankees radio broadcaster Suzyn Waldman says it, and I really got a kick out of hearing her say that name. Something about the syllables combined with her New York accent just tickles my ears. Now that he's with the Diamondbacks, the odds of my hearing that combination again are considerably smaller.
Detroit Tigers' Ace pitcher Tarik Skubal has a great name, Tigers' First Baseman Spencer Torkelson has another great baseball name, but that name could play hockey as well. Logan Gillaspie, who debuted in the Bigs as an Oriole pitcher, has a very baseball name, and though I couldn't find conformation, he may be related to the owner of the baseballest name I know, Conor Gillaspie.
Though there are multiple baseball players named Jordan and more named Aaron, as first names go, Jackie might be THE name. There have been at least six Major League Jackies, including Jackie Wilson, Jackie Moore, Jackie Bradley Junior and the great Jackie Robinson. I'm rather fond of the name Jackie, for personal reasons. My mother, Jackie, is named for her mother, also Jackie, who was named for her father, Jake. Of them, only my mother has had even a passing interest in baseball.
Shirley Ellis, 1964, "The Name Game"
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