The second half of the major-league baseball season is now in full swing, so to speak, and I've been keeping up not only with the stats but also with the oddball first names of Hispanic ballplayers. Every week, it seems, I run across one or two more rare specimens in the sports pages.
Here are a few more of my recent discoveries:
Brayan Villarreal. At first I thought this was a typo for Bryan (my local paper is notorious for its bonehead errors), but I verified the spelling at the website of the Boston Red Sox.
Geovany Soto. Another creative way to spell Giovanni (Yovani Gallardo is the other).
Yoenny Gonzalez. Yet another bizarre twist on the unpronounceable first name beginning with "Yo-" (e.g., Yoenis Cespedes, Yonder Alonso).
Leury Garcia. Could that first name be Irish, or is it Martian? Any relation to Avisail Garcia?
Leonys Martin, Jenrry Mejia, and Edgmer Escalona. Seriously? Can those first names even be pronounced in Spanish?
Cleuluis Alcides Rondon. When I saw this one, I instantly imagined an announcer stumbling on that first name and mispronouncing it "clueless."
Here are a few more of my recent discoveries:
Brayan Villarreal. At first I thought this was a typo for Bryan (my local paper is notorious for its bonehead errors), but I verified the spelling at the website of the Boston Red Sox.
Geovany Soto. Another creative way to spell Giovanni (Yovani Gallardo is the other).
Yoenny Gonzalez. Yet another bizarre twist on the unpronounceable first name beginning with "Yo-" (e.g., Yoenis Cespedes, Yonder Alonso).
Leury Garcia. Could that first name be Irish, or is it Martian? Any relation to Avisail Garcia?
Leonys Martin, Jenrry Mejia, and Edgmer Escalona. Seriously? Can those first names even be pronounced in Spanish?
Cleuluis Alcides Rondon. When I saw this one, I instantly imagined an announcer stumbling on that first name and mispronouncing it "clueless."