Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
Did you know that only 11 men in major league history have carried the name of "Troy"?

Sorry, LaTroy Hawkins, you don't count. Neither do you Jim "The Troy Terrier" Egan. Nor do the rosterfuls of players for the upstate New York-based 1871-72 Troy Haymakers or 1879-82 Troy Trojans.

Actually, two of those 11 aforementioned Troys were middle names -- though the players, Afenir and Brohawn, both went/go by "Troy" -- and two more were last/family names for a couple of guys named, no kidding here, "Bun" and "Dasher."

The two best "Men of Troy" -- one pitcher, one position player -- were even teammates from 1998-2004 with the Angels, those of course being closer Troy Percival and new Blue Jay acquisition Troy Glaus.

But with these few options, the question remains ... can we build a Hall of Names team for The Men of Troy? It seems doubtful that we'll get a full lineup, but let's see.

The Men of Troy
** Indicates Hall of Famer (none!)
* indicates All-Star (just two)

No "Troy" has ever managed in the big leagues.

C Troy Afenir (.190, parts of four seasons, 1987-92)
1B Troy Neel (.280, 37 homers, 1992-94; mostly DH)
2B Dasher Troy (.243, 1881-85)
SS
3B Troy Glaus (219 homers through 2005)
LF Troy O'Leary (.272, 127 homers in 11 years)
CF
RF
RHSP Troy Mattes (3-3 for 2001 MON)
RHSP Bun Troy (0-1 in one start for 1912 DET)
RHRP Troy Percival** (324 saves through 2005)
RHRP Troy Puckett (0-0 in 2 IP for 1911 PHI)
LHRP Troy Brohawn (4-4, 2001-03)
RHS/RP Troy Herriage (1-13 for 1956 KCA)

Nope ... we're not gonna get there. And "LaTroy" doesn't help us as we have plenty of pitching, comparatively speaking. In fact, two of the four guys named "Trey" (Hodges and Moore) were pitchers, and while Trey Lunsford is actually no improvement over the .190-hitting Afenir behind the plate, Trey Beamon could at least capably fill one of the holes in the OF. If we're looking for anagrams, there has never been a "Tory" to play big league ball, though both Torii Hunter and Torey Lovullo could probably help this squad.

So here's the question ... how do we fill out The Men of Troy, Bauxites? We need two OF and a shortstop (though Beamon, Hunter and Lovullo could conceivably fill those roles, we are open to alternates!) Nominations are welcome and invited ... in fact, are hereby challenged and demanded!

Meet the Men of Troy (Sorta) | 5 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Magpie - Wednesday, December 28 2005 @ 07:07 PM EST (#138059) #
how do we fill out The Men of Troy,

With Trojans, of course!

And seing as how the greatest Trojan warrior of all was named "Hector," you may not even need Kelly Paris.

Ron - Wednesday, December 28 2005 @ 07:10 PM EST (#138060) #
For SS I would add in Troy Tulowitzki althought he won't be in the majors for probably another 2 years.
gv27 - Thursday, December 29 2005 @ 11:03 PM EST (#138177) #
Seems the Blue Jays can pick 'em. Only five men (other than Mr. Overbay) have made the big leagues with the first name "Lyle". They are:

Lyle Bigbee ('20 Athletics)
Lyle Tinning ('33 Cubs)
Lyle Judy ('35 Cardinals)
Lyle Luttrell ('56 Senators)
Lyle Mouton ('97 White Sox)
Nolan - Friday, December 30 2005 @ 12:49 AM EST (#138187) #
gv27: The trend continues with the Jays other big aquisitions this year, A.J. and B.J.

There have only been 3 other A.J.'s to grace the MLB:
A.J. Hinch (1998-2004)
A.J. Pierzynski (1998-present)
A.J. Sager (1994-1998)

As for Mr. Ryan, he joins three other immortals who played in the majors:
B.J. Surhoff (1987-present)
B.J. Upton (2004)
B.J. Waszgis (2000)

Baseball Reference does not provide any other surnames for Ryan or Burnett (as in "his mother Bee Honeycutt and his father Jay Honeycutt...Bee Jay...BJ," for example) that may have given way to their initials-as-a-real-name names. Baseball Reference is usually very good at including what the initials stand for, so I assume that B.J. and A.J. are straight from their birth certificates.
Nolan - Friday, December 30 2005 @ 02:10 AM EST (#138194) #
In looking at the lack of history in the names of recent Jays aquisitions, I started looking at the Jays roster and began to wonder if the first names of the Jays starters are rarer than players on other teams.

I figured it'd be unfair to ask that question of someone else and so I did a little (edit: in hindsight, it was lot of work) research and here's what I found (I took the 11 position players likely to get the most playing time, the closer and the rotation and compared it to the equivalent players of the Yankees).

Some rules that I just made up (and am backing up with this gun from grandfather's arsenal [anyone here love Eddie Izzard?])include that the spelling has to be exact, no last names allowed and the name must be official (for example, I used Alexis, not Alex. This helps in his case, but hurts in Vernon's case.) Note: I wasn't sure what to do with Doc as his real name is Harry...so I looked up the rules that I made up and noticed rule 1.1.3, that we were to use the player's official first name.

Jays

Position Players:
Russ (0)
Aaron (21)
Troy (11)
Lyle (5)
Gregg (1)
Vernon (17)
Reed (0)
Alexis (2)
Corey (4)
Frank (26)
Shea (0)

Closer:
B.J. (3)

Rotation:
Harry (167) Roy (25)
A.J. (3)
Gustavo (2)
Josh (4)
Theodore (33)


Yankees

Positional Players:

Alexander (45)
Derek (11)
Robinson (3)
Jason (66)
Gary (72)
Johnny (13)
Hideki (1)
Jorge (16)
Bernabe (0)
Miguel (15)
George [Andy Phillips] (419)

Closer:
Mariano (1)

Rotation:
Randy (22)
Mike (363)
Shawn (13)
Carl (17)
Aaron (21)

Totals:
Jays- 233
Yanks- 1098

Well, maybe Mr. Phillips and Mr. Mussina skewed the numbers too much? Well even without those two, the total comes to 316.

So the Jays actually have a pretty rare roster of names compared to a random team. I know, I know, the Yankees may be on the other extreme and this whole may be inaccurate, but there is no way I'm doing another team...try sorting through hundreds of Harrys and Henrys and tell them apart, it's hard!

If I were a prophet, I'd say this is a good omen for the Jays, I mean what's more rare than winning the World Series? In keeping with the coincidences, prophets had exceedingly rare first names...not too many Habakkuk's in the Majors.
Meet the Men of Troy (Sorta) | 5 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.