In my Worcester neighborhood, there was a clutch of streets with Native American names. Or Native American-ish names.
Wyola. Utica. Delawanda. Alsada. Tallawanda. The only street named for an actual tribe was Seminole. I'm guessing that these streets were laid out in the 1920's, when there was a general fascination with things Native American. In my mind's eye, going up and down these streets, I'd venture a guesss that the houses were all built between the 1920's and 1950's.
Anway, it was a curiosity and those street names were a lot more interesting in most of those in my 'hood. Blaine Ave. Henderson. Varnum. Sylvan. Brookline.
The lone fanciful name was Eureka Street.
But as a kid, I liked the idea of a "themed" neighborhood, and I envied my friends who lived on one of the streets with a cool "Indian" name.
So as a childhood fan of having a street naming scheme, and a lifetime fan of the Boston Red Sox, I was keenly interested in learning of a Herriman, Utah, subdivision that has streets named for Red Sox players.
These are not necessarily the all-time greatest players. No Ted Williams Boulevard. No Tris Speaker Lane. No David Ortiz Street. No Pedro Martinez Avenue. No Carl Yastrzemski Road. (Well, you can't blame them for that omission. Who wants to spell Yastremski, let alone pay for the longer street sign?)
No the players who had streets named after them were the favorites of one non-Red Sox Nation native Brandon Parr "a land development project manager with EDGEhomes and lifelong Sox fan." “I kind of started following [former Red Sox third baseman] Wade Boggs as a kid,” Parr explained in a phone interview. “And he joined the Red Sox in the ’80s, and I’ve been a fan ever since.” (Source: Boston.com)
Thus there's Pedroia Street. And Varitek Drive. Eovaldi Avenue. And, of course, Boggs Way. (All great players, by the way. Wade Boggs is a Hall of Famer. Dustin Pedroia and Jason Varitek are in the Red Sox Hall of Fame. And Nathan Eovaldi was a key player on the 2018 World Series championship team.)
The opportunity to name streets must be one of the funner aspects of Parr's job. And he went to town.
“I thought it was just going to be kind of a fun idea to have something I could see every day that’s related to the Red Sox,” he said. “No one really gave me any pushback. I chose players that I have a connection with as I’ve been watching, and then some historical names like Fisk and Pesky and Remy, just to pay homage to some of the older guys as well.”
There was some pushback on Pesky Lane from someone not familiar with the great Johnny Pesky, a Red Sox Hall of Famer and someone who was associated with the Sox for over 60 years. (His number was retired.) The guy just associated the word pesky with annoyance. Parr set him straight.
Jerry Remy is in the Red Sox Hall of Fame. Carlton Fisk is in the Hall of Fame Hall of Fame. Both of their numbers are retired.
As for why so many other Red Sox greats didn't make the naming cut: Williams, Ortiz, and Martinez - three Hall of Famers - have common names that were already in use in town. Parr hasn't ruled out naming a street after Yastrzemski. He can always use Yaz instead.
For Ted Williams, he might want to consider Splender Splinter or Teddy Ballgame. Big Papi would be obvious for Ortiz. There's nothing that obvious for Martinez (one of my personal favorites among Red Sox players). Maybe Petey isn't already in use.Anway, this sort of street naming isn't that out of the ordinary in Utah, where:
...quirky street names are actually pretty common around the greater Salt Lake region. In Herriman and other nearby cities and towns, you can find neighborhoods whose street names pay homage to “The Lord of the Rings,” the Marvel Cinematic Universe, wines, authors, Arthurian legends, and even “Wayne’s World.”Wayne's World!!! Never would I ever, for Petey's sake, live on a street named for Wayne's World. Or Marvel superheroes, for that matter. To each his own.
Image Source: Boston.com Facebook
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