well, the lenten season is upon us. it's been about 10 years since i consciously gave something up for lent, and i don't really intend to give anything up this year. at least not because of lent. for those who may be unfamiliar, lent is meant to represent the 40 days of suffering and/or temptation jesus endured in the desert. my catholic school upbringing was not wasted.
enough of that - here's something you may not have known about jesus:
210 hits in a season is pretty good. there's more:
of course, these details come from the back of jesús alou's 1969 topps card:
here's the front:
it's the back of jesús luzardo's 2021 topps heritage "boyhood photos of the stars" card. notice that only luzardo's father gets the accent over the "u" which is odd to me. i would expect cards to start using accents in the very near future, but who knows. maybe it's inconvenient.
topps put alou in the first series, and so missed the fact that the expos dealt him to the astros before the season began. they got rusty staub in the deal, so they were still fortunate to have "secured jesus" in the expansion draft.
i had a kid in one of my elementary classes who shared his name with jesus. i called him jesus (gee-zus) once and was corrected: jesús (hay-sus). it was the first time i learned about non-english name pronunciations. i didn't learn about accents over vowels until high school spanish. these days, accents over the proper vowels are more prevalent, even on the backs of jerseys and online player rosters. we aren't all the way there, however.
i grabbed this card image from comc:
i used to only do it when i used my macbook for these posts which is pretty rare these days. and even then, i think i've only previously done it on posts concerning enrique (kiké) hernandez since i certainly don't want to forget the accent when typing out his nickname. now that i took the two minutes to figure out how to do it on a pc, maybe i can give up ignoring the accents for lent. at least for players named jesus.
ps i am really hoping someone gets the title of this post...
I'm giving up sugar for lent, like always. We're fairly hard-core Catholics in my family.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Jesus would have been an umpire. Can't really envision him playing baseball. Raises too many theological questions anyhow.
Unfortunately, I don't get the title.
giving up sugar was the standard in my household growing up.
DeleteI've had at least eight to ten students with that name... and I don't remember any of them using an accent when writing their name. But all of them were pronounced as if they had the accent mark.
ReplyDeletethat's a good point fuji. i worked with a guy named jesús and he didn't sign his name with an accent.
DeleteI Can't Hardly Wait for the lockout to end and the season to start, that's for sure.
ReplyDeletei knew i could count on a minnesotan to get the title. i am so unsatisfied with the lockout!
DeleteI've been taught and and tried to pass on to my daughters that you don't have to give up physical things during Lent. You can give up your time (volunteering) and your talents (acts of kindness) as well.
ReplyDeletethat's an excellent point matt. a less selfish approach for sure.
DeleteI don't get the title either. However, the OCD part of me is noticing that on the back of the Alou card, the 's' in 'Expos' isn't lined up with the rest of the words!
ReplyDeletei didn't notice the wayward s until you pointed it out. now it sticks out like a sore thumb.
DeleteLost on the title, too.
ReplyDeleteIt really is long past time for Topps to use accent marks on player names where appropriate. Not a good look for the company which insisted on making cards of "Bob Clemente" for many years. #PonleAccento!
the title comes from a lyric in the song "can't hardly wait" by the replacements - "jesus rides beside me, never buys any smokes"
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