ESPN just did a nice write up on the Sanz brothers who play for the West Michigan Whitecaps. What makes the story interesting, is that the article’s about Lius A. Sanz. And Luis A. Sanz. Yeah, two brothers…same name. Wow, if this doesn’t remind me of the classic film (ok, maybe not so much, but one of my favorites) Major League 3: Back To The Minors. They had a brother duo named Juan Lopez, who manager Gus Cantrall (played by Scott Bakula) dubbed Jaun 1 and Juan 2. Not sure if Whitecaps manager Joe DePastino has made a similar naming of the brothers, but he told ESPN, “I’ve been in this game for 18 years now and I’ve never seen it or heard of it.” Aparently no one els has either, so there is no record of brothers with the same name in Major Legue Baseball. In the movie, the Lopez’s played shortstop and second base, and were played by Tom and Tim DiFilippo, respectively. The real life
Sanz brothers play pitcher and catcher, and are separated by their middle names. Luis Angel (no. 44) is the pitcher of the two, while little brother Luis Alberto (no. 13) wears the tools of ignorance. They were both named after their father who was named, yeah, well, Luis Sanz. Luis Angel explains, “In the house, my mother called us by our middle names. i’d be Luis Angel or Luis Alberto, so it was no problem growing up because she new our name.” The two became teammates after Luis Alberto was demoted from High-A Lakeland Flying Tigers to help out the fledging Whitecaps. They’ve only been in one game toghether, though, on July 5 when the ‘Caps lost to Dayton 6-5. At the game this weekend, maybe I can get both to sign a program or something-same name, different signatures.

Sanz photo courtesy of ESPN

Buzz photo courtesy of Yahoo! Movies