David Wright is not alone in naming his child after Shea Stadium
New York Mets third baseman David Wright and his wife, Molly, welcomed a daughter into the world over the weekend and named her Olivia Shea Wright, leading to mass speculation in the media in New York that the Wrights gave their daughter a middle name in honor of the stadium the Mets called home from 1964-2008.
The Wall Street Journal went to the trouble of examining baby names in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut over the past 40 years to see how many people possibly named their kids Shea and if there might be a correlation to the Mets and Shea Stadium.
One issue with the Journal story that we should point out is that it’s highly unlikely that every sports fan in the tri-state area who did name their child after the stadium did so because they are Mets fans. Let’s not forget the New York Jets also called the stadium home for 20 seasons ending in 1983.
Wright, the Mets’ captain, underwent neck surgery in June and is expected to miss the rest of the season.
However, the Journal did find a correlation to increases in the popularity of the name Shea in years in which the Mets were winning championships and in the playoffs. For instance, the first record the Journal found of the name Shea in the area came in 1970, the year after the Mets won their first World Series.
David Wright named his daughter Olivia Shea. Real Mets fans name their kid Shea too. https://t.co/KYqKLuDCAe pic.twitter.com/u6yPhJY7YN
— Andrew Beaton (@andrewlbeaton) July 27, 2016
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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
