Admit it: you don’t know if J.A. Happ’s name is “Jay” or “J.A.” Despite the fact that his name is clearly listed in every scorecard, box score, and recap as “J.A.’, announcers uniformly refer to him as “Jay Happ.”
Happ is hardly the first baseball player in major league history to have a name that befuddles fans and sportscasters alike. Part of the fun of America’s most international sport is a wide array of easily mis-pronounced names.
For a lot of these guys, baseball being an international sport is only technically an excuse.