Ray Faces the Rays, Brown Faces the Browns

Friend of the VORG Dave Haller had a question for me Monday afternoon …

@dianagram This seems up your alley…Rays face Robbie Ray tonight…is this first time a team’s nickname = opposing starter’s last name?

— Dave Haller (@HallerDave) June 6, 2016

Here’s the boxscore from the Ray versus Ray(s) contest.

David Branson did some research and came up with this … which partially answered what Haller had asked …

@dianagram @HallerDave

Lloyd Brown had 22 starts vs the St Louis Browns from 1928-1936.

— David Branson (@obxleatherman) June 7, 2016

I merged the Teams data file from the excellent Lahman Baseball Database with the gamelogs from Retrosheet, and this is what I found. Prior to 2015, there had only been 58 similar occasions of a starting pitcher’s last name matching either his team or the opposing team’s nickname (singular of that name). The breakout is as follows:

Visiting Starting Pitcher the same as Visiting Team Nickname: 2 times

Visiting Starting Pitcher the same as Home Team Nickname: 27 times

Home Starting Pitcher the same as Visiting Team Nickname: 25 times

Home Starting Pitcher the same as Home Team Nickname: 4 times

All 58 happened to feature a pitcher and team named “Brown” (Browns). Besides Lloyd Brown of the ’28 to ’36 St. Louis Browns, the other “Brown” pitchers are the 1914-5 Yankees’ Boardwalk Brown, the 1933 and ’35 Yankees’ Jumbo Brown (19330622, 19350822 and 19350917 games only, h/t to Richard Chester) and the 1953 Red Sox’ Hal Brown.

 

date	vteam	hteam	VisSP	HomeSP	vnick	hnick
19140808	NYA	SLA	BROWN	Hamilton	Yankee	BROWN
19140826	SLA	NYA	Weilman	BROWN	BROWN	Yankee
19140921	NYA	SLA	BROWN	Hamilton	Yankee	BROWN
19150720	NYA	SLA	BROWN	Sisler	Yankee	BROWN
19280714	SLA	WS1	Gray	BROWN	BROWN	Senator
19280929	WS1	SLA	BROWN	Ogden	Senator	BROWN
19291006	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Stiely	Indian	BROWN
19300430	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Crowder	Indian	BROWN
19300522	SLA	CLE	Collins	BROWN	BROWN	Indian
19300706	SLA	CLE	Gray	BROWN	BROWN	Indian
19300801	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Stiles	Indian	BROWN
19300823	SLA	WS1	Blaeholder	BROWN	BROWN	Senator
19300902	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Collins	Indian	BROWN
19300911	WS1	SLA	BROWN	Stewart	Senator	BROWN
19310428	SLA	CLE	Blaeholder	BROWN	BROWN	Indian
19310507	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Blaeholder	Indian	BROWN
19310517	WS1	SLA	BROWN	Blaeholder	Senator	BROWN
19310615	SLA	WS1	Gray	BROWN	BROWN	Senator
19310726	SLA	WS1	Gray	BROWN	BROWN	Senator
19310801	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Blaeholder	Indian	BROWN
19310816	WS1	SLA	BROWN	Blaeholder	Senator	BROWN
19310830	SLA	CLE	Coffman	BROWN	BROWN	Indian
19310903	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Coffman	Indian	BROWN
19310915	SLA	WS1	Cooney	BROWN	BROWN	Senator
19320425	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Gray	Indian	BROWN
19320504	SLA	CLE	Gray	BROWN	BROWN	Indian
19320518	SLA	WS1	Stewart	BROWN	BROWN	Senator
19320522	SLA	CLE	Blaeholder	BROWN	BROWN	Indian
19320527	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Blaeholder	Indian	BROWN
19320611	WS1	SLA	BROWN	Hebert	Senator	BROWN
19320714	SLA	WS1	Fischer	BROWN	BROWN	Senator
19320726	WS1	SLA	BROWN	Blaeholder	Senator	BROWN
19320920	SLA	CLE	Fischer	BROWN	BROWN	Indian
19330416	CLE	SLA	Ferrell	BROWN	Indian	BROWN
19330422	SLA	DET	BROWN	Marberry	BROWN	Tiger
19330425	SLA	CLE	Hadley	BROWN	BROWN	Indian
19330426	SLA	CLE	BROWN	Hildebrand	BROWN	Indian
19330430	DET	SLA	Sorrell	BROWN	Tiger	BROWN
19330506	PHA	SLA	Grove	BROWN	Athletic	BROWN
19330508	WS1	SLA	Thomas	BROWN	Senator	BROWN
19330516	SLA	BOS	Hadley	BROWN	BROWN	RedSock
19330608	SLA	CLE	Wells	BROWN	BROWN	Indian
19330622	NYA	SLA	BROWN	Hadley	Yankee	BROWN
19330625	BOS	SLA	BROWN	Blaeholder	RedSock	BROWN
19330826	BOS	SLA	BROWN	Blaeholder	RedSock	BROWN
19330904	SLA	CLE	Hebert	BROWN	BROWN	Indian
19330913	SLA	BOS	Knott	BROWN	BROWN	RedSock
19340602	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Newsom	Indian	BROWN
19340904	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Knott	Indian	BROWN
19350808	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Knott	Indian	BROWN
19350822	NYA	SLA	BROWN	VanAtta	Yankee	BROWN
19350917	SLA	NYA	Andrews	BROWN	BROWN	Yankee
19360418	CLE	SLA	BROWN	VanAtta	Indian	BROWN
19360702	CLE	SLA	BROWN	Mahaffey	Indian	BROWN
19530519	SLA	BOS	Pillette	BROWN	BROWN	RedSock
19530621	SLA	BOS	Pillette	BROWN	BROWN	RedSock
19530806	SLA	BOS	Kretlow	BROWN	BROWN	RedSock
19530912	SLA	BOS	Kretlow	BROWN	BROWN	RedSock