What do Mars exploration and baseball history have in common? More than either seamheads or scientists may think.
Steven W. Ruff, associate professor with ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration, was part of the Spirit rover team and oversaw use of one of its instruments, including the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES).
When the Spirit team saw the Mars study site from space, they they nicknamed it “Home Plate” because it resembled the baseball plate.
“We arrived at Home Plate and we decided to use a baseball theme for the targets that we were studying,” Ruff said. “It’s a way to actually help remember things more easily than alphanumeric.”
The scientists chose obscure rather than common baseball references. Ruff said naming conventions are often used to honor people and places in the Earth’s history.
For example, the study subjects “Elizabeth Mahon” and “Norma Luker” were named for two Kenosha Comets players and are featured in the findings of Ruff and Jack D. Farmer, published in the Nov. 17 edition of Nature Communications.
Ruff provided a list of player, team and ballpark names from the Negro leagues and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (from “A League Of Their Own” fame) that have been or will be used to identify subjects on Mars. We have linked biographical information for each one.
NEGRO LEAGUES
Names Used
Posey (for Cumberland Posey)
Rogan (for Bullet Joe Rogan)
Barnhill (for Dave Barnhill)
Gibson (for Josh Gibson)
Kimbro (for Henry Kimbro)
Charleston (for Oscar Charleston )
Easter (for Luke Easter)
Radcliffe (for Double Duty Radcliffe)
Suttles (for Mule Suttles)
Dobie (for Dobie Moore)
Hilary (for Hilary Meaddows)
Rickwood (for Rickwood Field in Birmingham, AL)
Wilmington (for Wilmington Park in Wilmington, DE)
Barrs (for Barrs Field in Jacksonville, FL)
Names Unused
ALL-AMERICAN GIRLS PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE
Names Used
Names Unused
Biographical sources: Society for American Baseball Research, National Baseball Hall of Fame, The Jacksonville Historical Society, All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association, Major League Baseball, The New York Times, Online Archives of California, Baseball-Reference.com, Negro Leagues Baseball eMuseum.
