(Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
Steven W. Ruff and his colleagues on the Spirit Rover mission found silica-rich deposits in the spots marked A, B, C and D near "Home Plate" in Mars’s Gusev Crater.
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)
Sol White
James "Cool Papa" Bell
Jimmie Crutchfield
Raleigh "Biz" Mackey
Norman "Turkey" Stearnes
Newt Allen
Larry Brown
Leon Day
Martin Dihigo
Andrew “Rube” Foster
William Foster
Sam Jethroe
Buck Leonard
Rufus Lewis
Pop Lloyd
Hilton Smith
Willie Wells
Wild Bill Wright
Rickwood (for Rickwood Field in Birmingham, AL)
Wilmington (for Wilmington Park in Wilmington, DE)
Barrs (for Barrs Field in Jacksonville, FL)
Names Unused
Ray Dandridge
Lorenzo "Piper" Davis
Judy Johnson
Leroy "Satchel" Paige
Neil Robinson
Smokey Joe Williams
Ed Bolden
Bud Fowler
Larry Doby
Jackie Robinson
Roy Campanella
Hank Thompson
Sam Jones
Joe Black
Luis Tiant, Sr.
Charles “Corporal” Mason
Judy Johnson
Oscar “Heavy” Johnson
Buck Leonard
Sammy T. Hughes
John Preston “Pete” Hill
Jud Wilson
Grant “Home Run” Johnson
John Beckwith
Bill “Daddy” Byrd
Dick “King Richard” Lundy
ALL-AMERICAN GIRLS PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE
Names Used
Kathryn Beare
Virginia Bell
Muriel Bevis
Alice Blaski
Kay Blumetta
Ethel Boyce
Margaret Brown
Eileen Burmeister
Eleanor Callow
Dorothy Cameron
Dorothy Chapman
Joan Chiancola
Lucille Colacito
Clara Cook
Donna Cook
Betty Jane Cornett
Patricia Courtney
Pauline Crawley
Shirley Crites
Louella Daetweiler
Mary Dailey
Dorothy Damaschke
Marguerite Davis
Eileen Dean
Alice DeCambra
Mildred Deegan
Mona Denton
June Emerson
Elizabeth Emery
Betty Foss
Ruth Heverly
Thelma Hundeby
Margaret Jones
Josephine Kabick
Edythe Keating
Adeline Kerrar
Dorothy Key
Irene Kotowicz
Jaynie Krick
Mary Kustra
Ruth Lessing
Norma Luker
Elizabeth Mahon
Lenora Mandella
Betty McKenna
Naomi Meier
Darlene Mickelsen
Dolores Moore
Dorothy Mueller
Janice O’Hara
Marilyn Olinger
Nalda Phillips
Mary Reynolds
Barbara Rotvig
Audrey Seitzinger
Fern Shollenberger
Joyce Steele
Helen St. Aubin
Jane Stoll
Audrey Wagner
Betty Wagoner
Nancy Warren
Joanne Weaver
Marie Wegman
Alma Ziegler
Philomena Zale
Kenosha Comets
Names Unused
Pauline Dick
Jean Dowler
Gertrude Dunn
Julie Dusanko
Alva Jo Fischer
Lois Florreich
Rose Gacioch
Anne Georges
Theresa Kobuszewski
Margaret Murray
Terry Rukavina
Helen Sandiford
Doris Satterfield
Jacquelyn Savage
Edna Scheer
Margaret Silvestri
Dorothy Stolze
Shirley Stovroff
Marguerite Tesseine
Shirley Ann Weierman
Norene Witzel
Grand Rapids Chicks
Rockford Peaches
Kalamazoo Lassies
Fort Wayne Daisies
South Bend Blue Sox
Minneapolis Millerettes
Peoria Redwings
Racine Belles
Muskegon Lassies
Battle Creek Belles
Springfield Sallies
Chicago Colleens
Muskegon Belles
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.
