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.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20041215083720999