Fred Dunlap (1859)
Eddie Grant (1883)
Earl Averill (1902)
Hank Johnson (1906)
Mace Brown (1909)
Monty Stratton (1912)
Larry Napp (1919)
Ed Fitz Gerald (1924)
El Tappe (1927)
Moe Thacker (1934)
Barry Latman (1936)
Kent Hrbek (1960)
Bryce Florie (1970)
Tom Martin (1970)
Chris Widger (1971)
Mark Quinn (1974)
Josh Hamilton (1981)
Matt Wieters (1986)
Larry Napp was an American League umpire from 1951-1974.
El Tappe had a twin brother, Mel Tappe, who played in the minors.
First baseman Kent Allen Hrbek played his entire 14-year major league career, 1981-1994, with the Twins. He was born in Minneapolis, raised in Bloomington, and drafted by Minnesota in the 17th round in 1978. He hit only .203 in 59 at-bats in Elizabethton that year, but improved to .267 with 19 homers in Wisconsin Rapids in 1980. In 1981, he hit .379 with 27 homers at Class A Visalia, and that was as much as the Twins need to see. He came to Minnesota in late August and opened 1982 as the Twins’ regular first baseman, a position he held until he retired after the 1994 season. He made the all-star team in his rookie year of 1982, and would have made a couple of others had he been willing to go. He also finished second to Cal Ripken for Rookie of the Year in 1982, hitting .301/.363/.485 with 23 homers and 92 RBIs that season. While Hrbek was a consistently good player for the Twins, his best year appears to be 1987, when he hit .285 with 34 homers and 90 RBIs and an OPS of .934. He finished 16th in MVP voting that year, which was not his highest finish–that came in 1984, when he hit .311 with 27 home runs and 107 RBIs, finishing second in MVP balloting to Willie Hernandez. Injuries slowed Hrbek toward the end of his career, and he retired after the players’ strike in 1994. Kent Hrbek hit .282/.367/.481 in 6,192 at-bats. He hit 312 doubles, 293 home runs, and drove in 1,086 runs. He was inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame in 2000. As you probably know, Kent Hrbek is currently the host of an outdoors program, “Kent Hrbek Outdoors” and is active in raising money for ALS research.
I share a first name and birthday with your featured Twin birthday boy above. I remember seeing Mr. Hrbek's birthday on the back of his rookie baseball card when I was young, which immediately made him my all-time favorite Twin. Glad he forged a pretty nice career to justify my hero worship.
The family zooomx took me to see Star Trek - Into Darkness last night. Not a big trekkie, but I did like this movie. However, thanks to the WGOM community, the acronym YDMWJTK kept popping into my head at various points throughout the movie. So much that I kept chuckling at times when it made no sense to chuckle.
Well, happy birthday, zooomx.2! We'll add you to the list next year!
Happy Birthday! I had the same response when I learned that Cuddiier and I shared a birthday, but I was too old for hero worship. Settled for enjoying his card tricks more than the average fan.
For me it was Rod Carew, though I had more affinity for Mark McGwire
Elvin and Melvin Tappe. What where their parents thinking?
On a Twins related note, Mel pitched for the B League Henderson (TX) Oilers of the Lone Star League in 1947 and '48. In '48 they were an affiliate of the Senators. Mel's highest league was 7 games at AA Shreveport in 1952.
When I lived in Wessington Springs we had the Fastnacht brothers, Elvin and Alvin.
I knew two twins at the nursing home, Melvin and Meldon
I've seen names of twins through my job that I would have pronounced identically.
Most recent was like Aleeya and Aaliyyah, but that's not it. (I don't recall what it was and wouldn't say if I could. They did give me >95% certainty that the children had ≥one African-American parent.)
Ethnicity mentioned only to describe the distinctive naming style.
the trend for "distinctive" names over the past, I dunno, 30 years? has been interesting, to say the least.
source
Presumably, that data refers to the U.S. only. And, presumably, some of the increased variance in names is due to the ongoing browning of America. More ethnic/linguistic diversity in the population should, one would think, lead to more diversity in names. But there is more going on than just ethnic diversification in the population.
Interesting data. When choosing a name for the jalapeno, I wanted to make sure not to choose one that was too popular. The one we picked was ranked in the 80s on the Social Security baby name list for the most current year available. And in a class of 28 at daycare, there are THREE other boys with the same name. So it seems to me that within certain subgroups, names are far more popular than the overall list would lead one to believe.
5 most popular names by year.
You can also look up name popularity by state.
Oh, thank you! It turns out that in MN the jalapeno's name is far more popular in his birth year than it was nationally. And this is also very helpful for my current project--code name FIND A NAME FOR THE SECOND BABY ALREADY.
Might I suggest "Wreisner"?
Haha! Only if she names hers Percival Pumpernickel Pepper.
This place has worked on that project before...pretty sure none of the suggestions has stuck, but we rarely learn the "real" name anyway!
Oh yeah, you gotta correct for your own demo.
Which is hard to do if you don't know anyone with little kids.
But you're in luck! We all know lots of little kids.
Run some things by us.
apropos of this thread, an interesting piece from the Boston Globe on baby names and the origins of the SSA's search functions.