Ah, too bad. Being only the second Aa would still be pretty cool. The current #2 on the list is VA rat Watkins Abbitt. Michigan Republican John Zwatch is on the bottom beating out a guy I just mentioned on another thread, Zschau. A guy named John Zubly served in the Continental Congress! I didn’t know they had Continental Congress in that database.
Aardsma was on the Cubs and W Sox. Naturally he got better when he left town. With the Yankees now I see, or will be when he’s done rehabbing after Tommy John.
Yes, Aardsma, first alphabetically in MLB history, pitched for both the Cubs and White Sox, but he ain’t got nothin’ on outfielder Dutch Zwilling, who is last alphabetically in MLB history (although since the Baseball Encyclopedia lists pitchers separately at the end, the last player listed there is pitcher George Zuverink).
Zwilling played only four seasons in the Majors, but managed to play for each of the Cubs, the White Sox, and the Chicago Whales of the Federal League (which was a major league in 1914 and 1915). Zwilling led the Federal League in homers in 1914 and in RBIs in 1915, but he was *terrible* against the tougher aL pitching in 1910 and NL pitching in 1916. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/z/zwilldu01.shtml
BTW, do you remember those Chicago Tribune commercials from the mid-to-late 1980s that they’d show on WGN, starring (IIRC) Mike Royko and Dennis Franz, where they’d quiz each other about Cubs history? One of the questions was “what was the first team to play in Wrigley Field?”, and the answer was “the Whales.” When the Federal League folded, the owner of the Chicago Whales, Charles Weeghman, was allowed to purchase the Cubs, and he moved the Cubs into the steel-and-concrete stadium he had built for the Whales, “Weeghman Park.” It was later known as “Cubs Park” and, after William Wrigley purchased the Cubs in 1921, it was renamed “Wrigley Field.”