Points off for Spelling (One Sixty-Two: Day 70)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day Seventy: Jhonny Peralta, Cleveland Indians

I found joy in writing stories as a kid, so I paid attention when my elementary-school teachers taught me spelling. I found inspiration from a few high school English teachers, so I paid attention when they honed my writing skills. I found joy in telling news stories during college, so I paid attention when my journalism professors opened up The Associated Press Stylebook. And I found a love for teaching as a young adult, so I ask my own students to pay attention when I teach them grammar and sentence structure.

So it is natural that whenever I see the name of Cleveland’s starting third baseman, I grimace, shake my head, and reach for the red pen.

Transpose: That’s the proofreading mark The AP Stylebook tells me to use here. Switch those letters around. Get it right.

His name is Jhonny Peralta, and there is no misprint here. I’ve seen different stories on how Mr. Peralta was given this name – in one news item, a reporter wrote that Peralta’s name was spelled incorrectly on his birth certificate; in another story, it was reported that the name was completely intentional, for pronunciation reasons. This second story explained that the “Jh” in Spanish ensures that the “J” is pronounced like an English “J” and not like a “Y,” as many Spanish names beginning with J are pronounced.

So ironically, this peculiar name may be as different as it is all in the name of sound mechanics. It may be that Peralta’s parents were as in touch with their inner red pens as I am. And even if they weren’t, their son’s name is and always will be unique.

But still, I’ll always cringe whenever I see the name. For the past month or so, Peralta has been on a fantasy baseball team of mine. Every day, it’s there. Always spelled the same: Jhonny. You can’t change the spelling of the players on your screen. You can only choose to play them, trade them, or drop them.

If I ever do drop ol’ Jhonny, it will be because I want a different player, not because his name is driving me to mark up my monitor screen with red pen. Of course, when you do drop someone, you’re allowed to replace him with another player.

And I can tell you this, in the name of my own sanity: I will not be selecting Andruw Jones as a replacement. One name like that per year. My limit.