Today is Mark Funderburk's 48th birthday. A propos of nothing for the former Twin outfielder, but would you believe that not a single player with the first name of "Mark" has ever been inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame? (The closest we get is the great, but in this case only "middling" David Mark Winfield.) Now, that may change shortly when Mark McGwire becomes eligible -- but then again, why talk about the past when we can focus on the future?

Well, in this case, Mr. McGwire, because it's fun(derburk) ... and there have been a whole bunch of really fine Marks to don big league uniforms; wait until you get a load of the pitching staff.

So Roy "Doc" Halladay is set to go for the Jays tomorrow against the Indians.

A great nickname like Doc's can spur an entire Hall of Names feature all on its own, but when you add in the fact that it's also been my nickname on and off for 20 years (given my initials, M.D. and the fact that my last name is pronounced "Dockerty in some places), and toss in the additional nugget that I changed jobs this week and now am full-time in the healthcare industry, well, this seems like a natural.

There' have been plenty of major league players nicknamed "Doc." And plenty more with the initials "M.D." But when those two groups go shinguard-to-stethescope, who comes out ahead? Let's find out.

Some time last week, Magpie managed to work the "immortal Jean-Luc Picard" into the lede for one of the final official Game Threads. If you don't know -- well, first, shame on you -- Picard is the captain of the starship Enterprise-D from the mid-1980's TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Given that Mags posted that thread on the same day the WB network announced with finality that Enterprise, the current iteration of Star Trek, would not return next season, it got me to thinking ... could we combine the two great geek passions of my life, Baseball's Hall of Names and science fiction (specifically in this case Star Trek) to come up with an All-Trek lineup?

Even though nobody named "Picard" has ever played major leage ball, with FIVE series and something like forty-six movies in the can, we ought to be able to field a pretty, um, stellar (har!) team. Warp factor nine, Mr. Magpie. Engage!

Yep, the Royals are coming to town starting tonight, and though it's not quite as obvious as the Jays vs. Rays Hall of Names teams we engaged back on April 6, all All-Royal team seems in order.

This may not be what you're expecting, though ...

It's taken parts of three years to get here, but at long last, we've reached the final installment of our 12 "all-month" teams for Baseball's Hall of Names roster.

This team, unlike all the other month teams -- in fact, unlike all the other month teams combined -- has a wide variety of major league players who bear the name of the month itself. I mean, we appreciate you June Greene, thanks for stopping by the booth, Don August, but the fortuitously named "May Bee-Knots" (a no-prize for anyone who designs the uniform logo!) is captained by its best player, a man born in May, who also made his MLB debut in May, who also is the greatest center fielder ever to play the game ... a man named Mays. Nice start.

But before we get into formulating the team wearing the emerald birthstones, let's look a little more carefully into this all-"May" name thing ...

The first month of the season nears its conclusion, but before we get to the May Sweeps (and splits, for that matter), it's time to track down the members of the 11th of what will of course be 12 "all-month" teams for our Baseball's Hall of Names roster.

April is clearly the runaway month to have your kid born if you want him to be a Hall of Fame baseball player. No less than 28 current Cooperstown denizens have -- get this, now -- diamond birthstones, while another (Pete Rose) clearly racked up Hall-worthy numbers and started an ongoing debate that need not be rehashed here.

The number will continue to swell towards three dozen ...

For whatever reason -- or in some cases, lack of viable reason -- various Bauxites have clamored for the head of the GM over the past several months. Well, finally, it's happened ... the Jays released the only GM on the active roster, and you all are invited pay your respects to Crash as we ponder the immutable baseball question hinted at in the immortal All-Steinbrenner Yankees sketch when the Boss hosted Saturday Night Live.

What would a team entirely made up of GMs look like, anyway? Well, it's certainly stuffed with Gregs and Georges ...

Watching Kevin Brown struggle in pinstripes again this past weekend raised the question -- at least in my mind -- is he the greatest Brown ever to play major league baseball? Raise three fingers in the air if you know the answer to that right off, as we prepare for another exciting rendition of Baseball's Hall of Names ... Woohoo!

Look, this won't be the first Hall of Names feature that seems to be pointedly directed at and crafted for a particular member of the Batter's Box editorial board; for instance, some time ago there was a comment from Spicol that prompted the All-Steve team; Scott Lucas particulary enjoyed the recent Great Scotts effort; and last August we had the ultimate Kent/Williams teams battle it out in the All-Coach matchup.

And now, we turn our Simon and Garfunkelian lonely eyes to Mike Green ... actually, this team is much more of a followup to the recent spate of colourful (or not-so-colourful) Hall of Names efforts, including Seeing Red, the White/Black/Gray matchups in A Complete Lack of Colour and going all the way back to the April 2003 more general True Colours team.

But this Green piece (har!) comes with a bit of a twist ...

"Is this heaven?"
"No, it's the Internet."
-- Field of Names, movie release TBD

You may have heard, there's a little election going on over in Rome. I'm not quite sure if the final Pope candidate debates have been scheduled for CNN or not, or if the various people running for Pope are ...

Thanks to an idea from Bauxite Anders in yesterday's The Youngs and the Rest List Hall of Names feature, here's quick stab at a rarity -- a followup sidebar, for which we have rejected the names "Junior League" and "Junior Circuit" though the promising '70s pop culture reference available in a team called the "Junior Samples" sure was tempting.

Anyway, here we go ...

Sunday's ballgame between the Rangers and Blue Jays pits Team Canada against a very young squad -- in several ways. First, Texas does play quite a few chronologically-deprived players; but more to the point, they have an All-Star quality shortstop in former Jay farmhand Michael Young, and Sunday's starting pitcher is the former Princeton hoopster Chris Young, a 6'10" 25-year-old righty.

Baseball management types are always talking about a "youth movement" and playing "the young guys" but here the Rangers seem to actually be doing it. If only they hadn't let go of versatile veteran utilityman Eric Young, lost to the Padres, in the recent offseason.

Actually, 35 men named "Young" -- including a certain Cyclone you may have heard about -- have donned major league duds, and we could probably struggle along and build a whole Hall of Names team out of that list, but in the spirit of our youth -- er, at least Young -- movement, we'll think outside the box here inside Da Box and get creative ...

That's Right, It's Another Edition of ...
Baseball's Hall of Names! Woohoo!

After this week's earlier "All-Red" Hall of Names piece to welcome Boston's crimson stockings north of the border -- a Hall of Names that set all kinds of dangerous precedents, by the way, in focusing solely on nicknames, which are usually against the rules -- it's time to go to the opposite extreme.

Without getting all technical about what a "colour" is -- yes, yes, in a way, black is a lack of colour while white is just the opposite, a reflection of all colours -- we're going to build the least colourful team in the history of the game. That is, this team is going to be all black, white and gray.

The Red Sox are coming, the Red Sox are coming ...

According to Sean Forman's BaseballReference.com, nearly 200 players in major league history have borne the nickname "Red," not including guys like Rusty Greer and Rick Sutcliffe, who were each tagged "The Red Baron," nor Doug "Red Rooster" Rader, not to mention the two Reddings, two Redferns, three Redmans, two Redmons, four Redmonds or the various guys with names like Redus and Reder.

But in a break from Hall of Names tradition, this team will only consider nicknames, rather than completely excluding them.

You know, this Hall of Names challenge really should have been obvious from the get-go on Opening Day, but better late (at least before the next series starts) than never. It's Jays versus Rays redux ... and it doesn't look like this team of all Jays could hope to take two of three from their Ray counterparts.

Actually, the Jays could be pretty good ...