In literature, names have meaning. Charles Dickens spun the name Ebenezer Scrooge to conjure a miser and Vladimir Nabakov imbued Lolita’s given name and nicknames with substantial meaning. A town named Starkfield is the setting in Ethan Frome, and indeed a name that perfectly describes western Massachusetts during the winter.
We may logically know that baseball is not a tightly spun literary tale. The pages of baseball’s story are populated by random characters, some who don’t seem to fit any prescribed plot and some who fit perfectly into the symbolic meaning baseball fans (and writers) want to find.