Who Knew?

The Fan was pouring over Friday's box scores and it was pretty disappointing since almost all of the Florida games were rained out. But then the link was clicked to the Chicago game and looking over the pitchers that worked the game, the Fan got a Wuh moment. You know that kind of moment right? It's when you rub your eyes to see if you are seeing what you thought you saw. One of the innings pitched for Chicago was by J. Papelbon. What!?

So the Fan frantically checked through all the news sites. How did the guy who lives and dies by baseball miss such an important trade? The box score looked legit. J. Papelbon pitched an inning, giving up no runs with two strikeouts and a walk. That sounded right. But how could it be?

After hyperventilating for a moment, the Fan had a lucid moment and went to www.baseball-reference.com and searched for Papelbon. Thank goodness. There were three of them. There was the Jonathan that pitches for the Red Sox and then there were two others, Jeremy and Joshua. They are all brothers. Who knew!?

Jeremy and Joshua are twins and are three years younger than Jonathan. Joshua pitches in the Red Sox minor league system and pitched in Portland last year. Hey! That's the Fan's state! Jeremy pitched mostly in AA last year for Chicago and finished the year at AAA.

Wouldn't it be kind of funny if Jeremy was traded to the Red Sox and all three were in the bullpen? They are all relief pitchers by the way. The Fan can see it now: "Pitching the seventh inning, Papelbon." "Now pitching for the Red Sox (in the eighth inning), Papelbon." "And it's time for the Red Sox to turn to their closer, it's Papelbon." Wouldn't that be something?

So anyway, the Fan hopes he is not the only dummy who didn't know about all of this. Three Papelbon pitchers. And they are all relievers. Fascinating.