A Vegetable, a War Hero, and Julius Caesar: Donruss Names Series Part 5

My middle name is John. Solid saint name, but not particularly exciting. Luckily for us, some baseball players have quite interesting middle names, and I'm going to give you seven of them in today's post.

In the first installment of the Donruss Names Series, Night Owl made me aware of a post he wrote back in the twenty aughts about unique middle names as discovered on the backs of some 1975 Topps cards. The Topps company featured full player names during several different sets in the 70s. Some of those players featured in those sets of course lasted into the Donruss Full Name on the Back of the Card Era, like Jonathan Trumpbour Matlack and Vida Rochelle Blue. So because I am now aware of Night Owl's usual brilliance on the topic and knowing I cannot come near replicating it, I will present to you only new unique middle names not on his list.

This is part five of the Donruss Names Series. Here's a recap of parts one through four, which can be accessed here:

Part 1: Famous players who went by their middle name

Part 2: Players who you thought had a nickname, but their nickname was their real name

Part 3: Players with a unique first name (Part 1)

Part 4: Players with a unique first name (Part 2)

Let's dive in, looking at these unique middle names in reverse uniqueness order:

7) Mike Huff

1992 Donruss #579, Mike Huff

I don't think of Kale as a name. I think of it as a terrible vegetable.

6) Gary Sheffield

1990 Donruss #501, Gary Sheffield

Antonian seems to come from Anthony and there are some historic references on it, but nothing really stands out. I just thought it seemed unique. Bonus points if you can tell me what the ad on the front of the card is for, because I have no idea.

5) Doyle Alexander

1984 Donruss #439, Doyle Alexander

The historical figure, the Marquis de Lafayette, was a French military officer who came to America to direct American troops in the Revolutionary War against the British. Donruss would have had a hard time getting his full name on a baseball card: Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette. 

Do you think Doyle every felt strange playing for a city in a nation subject to the British? Like he let the ol' namesake down?

4) Tom Candiotti

1990 Donruss #256, Tom Candiotti

Candiotti played 16 years and racked up 151 wins in his career. Tom Caesar sounds a lot like Tom Seaver. That's all I've got.

3) Barbaro Garbey

1985 Donruss #456, Barbaro Garbey

The Garbey Garbey made me think of Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former U.N. Secretary General. When I think double names, I also always think of the quote "the guy so nice, they named him twice," which I guess is a reference to the eccentric radio station owner Jimmy James (James James) from the sitcom NewsRadio from the 90s. Jimmy James was played by Stephen Root, who you might remember better as Milton from Office Space. Another interesting fact from the card back: Garbey came to the U.S. as a refugee during the Freedom Flotilla from Cuba in 1980. 

2) Cecil Cooper

1981 Donruss #83, Cecil Cooper

Celester likely derives from the Latin caelestis, meaning heavenly. That 1980 stat line was out of this world, so let's say it works. 

1) Mike Lum

1982 Donruss #300, Mike Lum

A unique middle name and an interesting back story. Lum was the first American of Japanese ancestry to play in MLB. His mother was Japanese and his father was an American soldier. They gave him up for adoption, and he was adopted by a Chinese couple who gave him his name. (Source: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/mike-lum/) I

Hope you got a good dose of random from today's post! And were at least moderately entertained. What was your favorite middle name of the bunch?

1981 Donruss and Its Poison Gum?

1981 was the only year Topps, Donruss, and Fleer all contained gum with their packs of cards. The Topps virtual monopoly of producing cards had been recently overturned, so Fleer was back in the game and Donruss was an eager newcomer. Both of the latter companies had to work out some kinks in the early years, with photo quality issues and errors being at the top of the list. But back to the gum. Topps appealed the antitrust ruling that let Fleer and Donruss into the card making business, but the best they could do was retain the sole rights to packaging cards and gum together. As a result, in 1982, Fleer went with the logo sticker and Donruss introduced their puzzle cards along with their base sets.

But maybe it was a blessing in disguise that Donruss in particular wasn't allowed to continue to include gum in its packs of cards. From what I could gather in some limited research, the gum stain/sticking issues inherent in gum-card packaging might have been notably worse with the Donruss product. It had to have been something with the makeup of the gum itself.

I think we all can picture a Topps gum stain. But a Donruss gum stain? Maybe not. So when I ran across these cards, all I could think was, "What in the world was this gum made from?"

Now granted, there has to be some color change that has gone on over the nearly 40 years since these beauties were produced, but my goodness it looks bad. Some potential reactions:

• I didn't know gum could rust! 
• Was this stuff made from tree sap?
• I think these cards should be tested for carcinogens! 

Your thoughts?

(Oh, and look at that Steve Yeager card again. Crazy story from 1976! Wow!)