Thursday Thought: Ever notice how many legends have a one-of-a-kind surname?
 

Was just poking around on Baseball Reference when I realized how many all-time greats have a surname not shared with any other major leaguer…ever.

Too many to chalk up to coincidence. Is having a unique last name the secret sauce?

Ruth
Gehrig
Speaker
Hornsby
Foxx
Musial
Spahn
Koufax
Marichal
Seaver
on and on…

Just an interesting observation.

The one and only......


https://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan...Mantle50xx.jpg----https://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan...eMantle50x.jpg



TED Z

T206 Reference
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having a common last name does not prevent Greatness
 

Robinson comes to mind !!!
4 HOF including Jackie, Frank, Brooks

Plenty of obscure Robinsons, I’m afraid.

Shane, Don, Drew, Clint…

Ruth isn't all that uncommon I know two unrelated people (to Babe or each other) with that last name. Seaver, if you allow for spelling variations, is pretty mundane as well. Marichal isn't unusual in Latin countries.

Also

Williams,
Bonds,
Robinson,
Young,
Johnson,
Wagner, etc.

are far from unique.

As a kid I always thought it was so weird that the FIRST name in my big and heavy Baseball Encyclopedia was Hank Aaron. The number one home run hitter and the number one person of all 19,000+ people to play the game alphabetically, it i was like it was supposed to happen (in my 12 year old mind).

Yaz.

I believe Eppa Rixey is the only HOFer and MLB player who has a unique first and last name in all of MLB history.

Edited: With all the influx of Asian and Latin American players, I serious doubt he is the only player with a unique first and last name. But he is the only HOFer with both as it relates to the HOF and all of MLB history.

Such a great name.

Yaz's grandson, Mike, plays for the Giants.

Maybe Clay Dalrymple, John Boccabella and Art Kusnyer were once slated for greatness.

Or perhaps the unique name thing doesn't apply to Catchers?. :rolleyes:

Do any of the Ruth’s you know play in the majors?

Never thought about it but it is interesting now that it is mentioned

Many are common like mentioned but some unique ones to like some mentioned.

Who is the greatest Smith of all time? Jones?

AARON - STILL not appreciated enough.


...and CLEMENTE too!!

Kid brother Tommie excludes Hank.

Roberto was on the list until 1998 when Edgard debuted.

Just a fun little exercise. No real meaning behind it.

Indeed…and a budding chemist as plan B if the pitching gig didn’t pan out.

Bench
Kaline
Maris
Mathewson

Interesting point. I doubt it would hold up under any real scientific scrutiny but interesting to think about.

If you took any random small town in the US and said let me see a list of the 150 dentists who have practiced in this town since 1900 . . . . I sort of think you'd get pretty much the same kind of distribution of unique and common names.

I used to have a theory that so many football player have odd ball and feminine names (i.e., Lynn Swann) because they got the crap teased out of them in first grade and immediately decided to turn the tables and get tough . . . . but that's a different thread altogether.

What's in a name?

I always found it odd that one of the greatest moments in Pre-War baseball is missing a key name. The pitcher who struck out Mighty Casey was never given one.

I would imagine the greatest Jones is Chipper.

Smith? Ozzie & Lee are in the Hall but Reggie was better.

A cursory search suggests there's been only one Overall and two Orvals...

Cleon!

Ted,

An odd coincidence that you posted that Mantle with such a deep blue color. I was browsing through older threads on rare Mantle's, happened to stumble upon this one from 2008 where you mention a "1969 Mantle with this deep blue background color" I can only assume this is the card you were talking about! I linked the threat below

https://www.net54baseball.com/showth...ghlight=mantle

As to the names, some of the greats names are so unique, I'm almost glad that's the case. And in terms of baseball names, in my opinion, you can't do much better than Mickey Mantle.

- James

Hi James

I have been searching since 1984 for another "blue" 1969 Mantle to no avail.

If anyone on this forum has such a card (or has seen one), please chime in.

Thanks,


TED Z

T206 Reference
.