Same Name, Different Guy

Given that thousands upon thousands of players have played MLB baseball, there's bound to be multiple players who share the same name as other players. For whatever reason, I decided to do a bit of research to see who I could find that shared the name with a famous MLB player or even some lesser players who had the same name as one another. 

By the time I finished looking around online and in my collection for same-name players, I ended up finding 4 to share with you today. But as I type this, I remembered that current Reds player Billy Hamilton shares the same name as Hall of Famer Billy Hamilton who captured 2 Batting Titles over his 14-year career.

The guy at the top of this post is Randy Johnson, undoubtedly one of the greatest pitchers to ever play the game. He captured 5 Cy Young awards over his 22-year career. But did you know there was a Randy Johnson before him who played in the 80's?

Johnson had 1 full season (1982) which was enough to land him a card in the 1983 Topps set. He hit .248 in that season with 10 homers and 33 RBI. Not too bad, especially given the batting average of some of today's players and that Johnson did all this in 234 at-bats. He stayed in the minors for the rest of his career, but he'll forever share the name of one of the most iconic pitchers ever. Sadly, I wasn't able to find any other info besides what he did in his brief major league career.

Speaking of recognizable and legendary pitchers, Pedro Martinez was certainly both of those things when he played from 1992-2009. But just like Randy Johnson, there was another Pedro whose card I acquired and showed on this blog a couple of months ago that has a story attached to it.

I picked this card up at my LCS a couple months ago while looking through the rookie card and insert bin. Most cards in this bin were 50 cents to $2 and they were all of Hall of Famers or current stars. So when I saw this Pedro Martinez card, I had no clue this was anyone other than the guy who spent 7 years with the Red Sox. It was actually Night Owl who pointed out that this was a different Pedro Martinez than the 8-time All-Star. This Pedro played 5 years in the 90's and finished his career 7-4 with a 3.97 ERA and given that he had no saves and only 1 career start, I'm guessing he was a middle reliever.

A middle reliever? That's why I haven't seen any cards of him before or since. Makes sense.

You can probably tell where I'm going with this, but the player who shares the name Joe Morgan isn't actually a player. He was the manager of the Boston Red Sox for 4 years, taking over in mid-1988 after firing their old manager.

You may recognize him because he was in multiple vintage Topps sets from the 1960's. Morgan went 301-262 in his 4 years as manager of the Red Sox, but he never managed again after that. He did manage in the minors before his 4 years with the Red Sox. In fact, he managed the Pawtucket Red Sox (Triple-A affiliate of the Red Sox) during their famous 33 inning game against the Rochester Red Wings. He was apparently really well-liked as well by players such as Roger Clemens and Jim Rice.

The final 2 players who share the same name don't include one who is far more recognizable than the other. In fact, these 2 played at the same time as one another for years before one of them retired last year.

Yep, it's Chris Young and Chris Young, a pitcher and an outfielder who played at the same time from 2006-2017 before the pitcher retired after the 2017 season. I'm far more familiar with the outfielder Chris Young because, as you can see, he played for the Red Sox from 2016-2017. But the pitcher had some pretty good years with the Padres in the mid-2000's. Both were named to an All-Star game in their career, but the fact that neither one of them outplayed the other sets them apart from the others on the list. 

Finally, it's still not too late to enter my 200th post giveaway. Details about how to enter are included on the 200th post giveaway linked directly above.