Z
That’s what’s in a name in Major League Baseball. Z.
There are 1,200 ballplayers on major league rosters (40 per team — 25 are active at any given time). The most common surnames are Rodriguez and Hernandez with 15 each. There are 14 named Gonzalez and another 14 named Ramirez. 12 are named Perez, 11 Sanchez, 9 Lopez, 7 Martinez, and 5 each Chavez and Valdez. (That 107 out of 1200.)
There are 14 Johnsons, and 9 each Jones and Anderson. Currently there are just 8 Smiths, but it is the most common name in baseball history.
Some factoids.
Just 11 Spanish surnames account for one-quarter of all the people in the Western Hemisphere.
Approximately one-third of all major leaguers are from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela.
I can remember when Latino ballplayers first made it to the big leagues and announcers pronounced Martinez as Martin-ez.