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So Jays fans, in your memories, will you always have Parris? (The spelling's a bit off, true.) Does Cleveland rock? Do you enjoy a Boston marathon? Fly South to see Lima? Does Houston have a problem? Many ballplayers have or had place names as first or last names. Which leads to today's ....

Question of the Day: Who can we get to fill out the roster of an All-Geography Hall of Names team? Alternate spellings are fine, but see if you can't somehow fill out a separate team for first and last names. Here are some starter suggestions ...

Give positions (and teams and years played especially if the player is obscure), if you know them! Priority will be given to players whose names are cities, countries, whatever, that don't require a parenthetical explanation about where a city is, like some below do -- no matter the quality of the player. Proper spelling is optional, but pronunciation must match; names spelled precisely like the geographic location but pronounced differently (pretend for a moment that Jose Lima pronounced his name Lye-muh) are also acceptable.

LAST NAMES
Steve Parris, SP
Reggie Cleveland, RP
Jose Lima, SP
Tyler Houston, C/3B (he can also be on the first names team thanks to Tyler, Texas)
Jeff Austin, SP
Rafael Santo Domingo, IF
Ossie France, RP
Paul Moskau, SP
Fred Norman, SP or Nelson Norman, SS (city home to University of Oklahoma)
Bobby Richardson, 2B (city in North Texas)
Sliding Billy Hamilton, OF (city in Ohio; also home of the CFL's Tiger-Cats)
Claudell Washington

FIRST NAMES
Dallas Green, MGR
Austin Kearns, OF
Houston Jiminez, SS
Israel Alcantara,1B

Rules: No "Saint" or "San" names .... "San Juan Gonzalez" and "St. Louis Brock," even with that last one being so appropriate, are OUT. And absolutely NO nicknames; partial names are also verboten; Jim York makes it OK thanks to York, England; but Jim "New" York would not make the cut. And let's try to use each name only once as a first name and once as a last name or we'll end up with the All-Austin Team.
QOTD: Geography Bee | 32 comments | Create New Account
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_groove - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 09:30 AM EST (#9036) #
Daryl Boston,OF

How about Germany Scahefer? Does that count?
_MatO - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 09:35 AM EST (#9037) #
Barry Bonds (Barrie).
_groove - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 09:38 AM EST (#9038) #
Oh and I figured out your starting CF: Oscar Charleston (WV or SC)
_Daryn - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 10:16 AM EST (#9039) #
UL Washington
_Sean - TBG - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 10:18 AM EST (#9040) #
http://www.torontobaseballguys.com
Vladimir Guererro, thanks to the Mexican State Guererro.
_Daryn - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 10:20 AM EST (#9041) #
Sorry about the Washington, already been used

How about
Gary (Indiana) Carter?
_Daryn - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 10:24 AM EST (#9042) #
There's a Village of Winfield, in Illinois, but I gotta stop now, I think this is a sickness..

Dave Winfield
_Sean - TBG - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 10:30 AM EST (#9043) #
http://www.torontobaseballguys.com
Also Richard Hidalgo (another Mexican state - Hidalgo, not Richard), also Paul Sorrento (after the Italian town) Tyler Houston, Marty Cordova (after the Spanish city), Trenidad (& Tobago) Hubbard, Orlando Hudson('s Bay), Jason (Hudson's) Bay, although I guess the last two are reaching a bit...
_Sean - TBG - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 10:33 AM EST (#9044) #
http://www.torontobaseballguys.com
OK, one more and then I'm done... Scarborough Green, AAAA outfielder.
_Smirnoff - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 10:55 AM EST (#9045) #
Jeff Kent (as in Kent, Washington)
Lucas - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 11:15 AM EST (#9046) #
All Texas Team:

SP - Denton “Cy” Young
SP – Walt Terrell
CL – Bryan Harvey
C – Tyler Houston
1B – Franklin Stubbs
2B – Bobby Richardson
3B – Dallas McPherson
SS – Rick Burleson
OF – Austin Kearns
OF – Brady Clark
OF – Vernon Wells

Manager – Alvin Dark
_Wayne H. - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 11:54 AM EST (#9047) #
An all Manitoba town team in honour of Cory Koskie.

All are names of Manitoba towns. There might be a better list, but this one should work. I have added a starting rotation.

C - Terry Steinbach
1b - Ed Cartwright
2b - George Carman
3b - Forrest Crawford
ss - Bill Russell
of - Mickey Rivers
of - George Selkirk
of - Ricky Jordan
dh - Hal Morris
SP - Jack Morris
SP - Don Carman
SP - Jack Sanford
SP - Ben McDonald
RP - Darrell Brandon
RP - Al Holland
RP - Brandon League
Mgr - Bill Virdon (Virden)
_Stan - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 12:35 PM EST (#9048) #
Rocky Nelson (BC)
_Stan - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 12:37 PM EST (#9049) #
John Mayberry
_Stan - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 12:39 PM EST (#9050) #
Joe Morgan (PA)
_Mick - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 12:50 PM EST (#9051) #
Awesome job by Lucas and Wayne (though not by D. Wayne Lukas) -- i was actually working on an all-Texas-town team, but Lucas' is way better. Since he beat Wayne to the post by a mere 39 minutes, Lucas wins this prize, a photo of double-named Tyler Houston:




Keep 'em coming!
Lucas - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 02:06 PM EST (#9052) #
You could probably create an all-Dallas/Forth Worth Metroplex team, Mick.

John Garland, Bruce Hurst, Rich McKinney, Art Decatur, etc.

Surprisingly, there's never been an "Irving" (current home of the Dallas Cowboys) in baseball.
Mike Green - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 02:31 PM EST (#9053) #
Sean, Hudson is a famous town in Quebec (the first with a no-pesticide law). So, you've got your choice of Orlando or Tim.

Jackson, Mississipi would give you a number of interesting options. Johnson City, Texas will allow Lucas to have the pick of a couple of pretty fair pitchers. What do you do with Collins Bay? Is it Eddie or Jason? And there happens to be places in Nevada called Ruth and New Ruth. There's a town in Ontario called Ailsa Craig; does that let Biggio play?

One other question- can we move from Baton Rouge to Red Schoendienst?
_Mick - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 02:48 PM EST (#9054) #
Mikey, gotta read the rules ...
partial names are also verboten; Jim York makes it OK thanks to York, England; but Jim "New" York would not make the cut.
Jackson is in; Johnson City and Fort Collins are out.

This is taking an interesting spin. I was thinking of cities that might be names; many here seem to be gravitating toward names then finding cities to match. S'cool. And we have two and a half complete geographical rosters ... if this were a chapter in the inevitable "Big Book of Baseball's Hall of Names" (copyright 2013; Pulitzer, 2014), it would have to have Texas and Manitoba sidebars in it.
_Mick - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 02:48 PM EST (#9055) #
Oops, I meant "Collins Bay" but wrote "Fort Collins" because I had it on my list yesterday before tightening the rules.
Mike Green - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 03:32 PM EST (#9056) #
OK, Mick. There is a Johnson, Vermont. So, Walter and Randy can have their day in the sun (or, as seems more appropriate in Randy's case, on the mountaintops).
Gitz - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 03:40 PM EST (#9057) #
I'm rather impressed that somebody knew about Kent, Washington, which is, by all accounts, a sordid little berg.

Can we use fictional towns? 'Cause Lee Mayberry's got a spot on that team.
_Mick - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 04:15 PM EST (#9058) #
Former Vancouver Grizzlies PG Lee Mayberry?? And former Blue Jay John Mayberry is already listed above.

I have to think there's a real Mayberry (RFD) somewhere, but if not, sure, what the hell, fictional towns are fine. Is there a ballplayer named Brigadoon out there?
_Stan - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 04:19 PM EST (#9059) #
Moose Skowron

There is a place called moose on Hwy 11 in northern Ontario. Been there
Gitz - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 04:21 PM EST (#9060) #
Ah, crud. It was John Mayberry about whom I was thinking. (Take that, Grammar Police!) I'm too young to be senile, but on the other hand, I'm not that young, evidenced by the dual awareness of 1) The Andy Griffith Show and 2) John Mayberry.
_Jabonoso - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 04:46 PM EST (#9061) #
Hidalgo, Guerrero...
There are plaenty of options with Spanish names naming cities ( Santiago de Chile, de Cuba, de Queretaro, de Compostela, i mean every Spanish speaking country will have a city called Santiago) Same with Leon, Valencia etc.
Like GFR i'm out
_Brian W - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 05:53 PM EST (#9062) #
Here is the All-Alberta team.

I stuck to exact names only and restricted myself to using each name once (otherwise it would have been full of Smiths).

Manager: Leo Durocher
Coaches: Gene Lamont, Jim Leyland
Umpire: Tom Connolly

C Mickey Cochrane
1B Dave Kingman
2B Garth Iorg
SS Honus Wagner
3B Brooks Robinson
OF Dave Winfield
OF Devon White
OF Vince Coleman
DH Hal McRae

SP Ed Walsh
RP Lee Smith

Close, but not quite good enough:
Ozzie Smith (probably could play second base better than Iorg)
Thurmon Munson
Jeff Montgomery
Claude Raymond
Mike Green - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 06:08 PM EST (#9063) #
Take my word for it, Brian W- you really, really, really want Ozzie to play second and use Montgomery as your closer. The valley between Garth Iorg and Ozzie Smith is deep and wide.

Heckuva team, those Albertans!
_Mick - Wednesday, December 15 2004 @ 07:42 PM EST (#9064) #
The Alberta team looks like the best by a long shot so far, though that Texas team could be tough. I'm surprised the Albertans didn't go with

Albert J. Aber ... AKA the only Albert A. to play MLB so far!
_MK - Thursday, December 16 2004 @ 01:53 AM EST (#9065) #
I'd just like to say that I found it amusing reading this thread to see a couple of posts debating the merits of O-Dog and whether he could be included on the team for the name Hudson, when Orlando seems much more obvious, city-wise... :)

Now, whether another Orlando (Cepeda (HOFer), Cabrera, Merced) might be a better choice for the team, that I'm not sure.
Mick Doherty - Thursday, July 02 2009 @ 04:58 PM EDT (#201996) #

Greatest player city-name EVER ...

The Rockies just acquired a fine minor league prospect from the Cubs for Jeff Baker. His name?
Alberto Alburquerque. No kidding!

 

CeeBee - Thursday, July 02 2009 @ 08:48 PM EDT (#202007) #
Now that's a good one for sure. :).... hmmmm been a long time since we did a HON thing, hasn't it? Can it be that we are running out of names?
QOTD: Geography Bee | 32 comments | Create New Account
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