A doppelganger is a mysterious, exact double of a living person.  The closet equivalent in baseball today is two minor league players who are both named Brady Feigl, stand 6’4” tall, have fiery red hair, wear glasses, and had the same elbow surgery performed by the same doctor in 2015.  Although not quite in that category, there are a number of lesser known MLB players with hall of famer namesakes.  Frank Thomas was a Mets outfielder and first baseman from 1951-1966 nicknamed “the Big Donkey”.  Joe Morgan was a career 0.193 hitter turned  manager for the Red Sox.  There were 2 other Randy Johnsons, both of whom reached the Majors in the early 1980s and also sported mustaches.  Pedro Martinez was a southpaw who had his greatest success in one season for the Padres in 1993. I am still searching for my doppelganger to help with my laundry.

In the game today, the Dons middle infield was occupied by the Bradys (Quinn and Wall), each team had a Dominic and Jake, and although it sounded like both team had a Augie, my research department confirmed that the player on the Panthers was in fact named Abdi.  The pitching was superb on both sides, with no earned runs given up by any of the pitchers.  For the Dons, Brendan Miles got the start on the mound.  He went 5 strong innings giving up 2 runs on 4 hits, 1 walk, and 1 HBP.  

Brady Quinn pitched the last inning, giving up no runs, hits, or walks.  He recorded 4 strikeouts in the inning following a dropped third strike to the first batter he faced.  Fun fact: this has only been done 93 times in MLB history.

The Dons offense had 4 hits, 4 walks, and 1 HBP.  David Gonzales, Cole Gwaltney, Dominic Patitucci, and Brady Wall each had a hit.  Unfortunately, the team was unable to put any runs on the board despite several scoring opportunities.  In the top of the 1^st inning, the Dons loaded the bases but fell short following a groundout to shortstop.  The team loaded the bases again in the top of the 3^rd inning, but got robbed on a diving catch by the Panthers righfielder on a ball off the bat of Patitucci. Succumbing to the jinx, Ben Pecci was unable to extend is hit streak to 11 games, going 0-3 on the day. 

Get to know Coaches: Jim’s favorite restaurants are Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa and Mansion at Turtle Creek in Dallas, and Dan’s is Social Bird in Lafayette.

The team returns home to play Vintage today (Friday, April 21) at 4pm