In search of baby names, baseball fans Craig and Tiffany Rowland ruled out Comiskey and Wrigley. They considered Ebbets.
So what do you think, they gave up on their tribute to legendary ballparks? That they went with Tom, Dick and Harriet? Not a chance.
The Monroe couple hit a solid triple a year ago, naming their triplets Fenway, Camden and Brooklyn.
Brooklyn, the only girl in the trio, and her brothers have a big sister, 4-year-old Jazzlyn. “Brooklyn’s name covered both bases. It’s similar to Jazz’s name and she’s also named after the Dodgers,” Tiffany Rowland said.
Camden is a nod to Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Md.
Wait, there’s more baseball lore. Fenway has two first names, the second being Huntington. Here’s some sports trivia sure to impress even on-the-ball fanatics:
Before Fenway Park was home to the Boston Red Sox franchise, the team originally called the Boston Pilgrims played at Huntington Avenue Grounds, a mile and a half from its future home. The first World Series game was Oct. 1, 1903, at Huntington. The Pilgrims, led by pitcher Cy Young, lost 7-3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Fenway Huntington, that’s some mouthful of a name for a 1-year-old. The Rowlands call their little guy “Hunter.”
“A lot of gentleman jocks really like it, most guys know where it came from,” said Tiffany Rowland. “Others wonder, ‘What are you doing to these poor kids?’”
What they’re doing is honoring history and having some fun with a favorite family pastime.
“We’re just baseball fans,” Tiffany Rowland said. The couple has had Mariners season tickets throughout their seven years of marriage. As he always does, Craig Rowland, a Microsoft program manager, made it to Monday’s opening day at Safeco Field.
Tiffany had to miss it this year.
She was home Monday with a houseful of babies, who were under the weather. Anyway, Safeco Field is old hat to the triplets.
On March 26, their first birthday party was held in the Third Base Terrace Club on the Seattle ballpark’s second level. The party was less for the tots than for “everybody who helped us out with the pregnancy,” Tiffany Rowland said.
“That was the main reason for the party, to say how thankful we are for the neighbors and friends who helped,” Craig Rowland added.
“One lady watched Jazz after school. Another took Tiffany to the hospital to see the babies every day after she came home and couldn’t drive. Someone else takes Jazz to school so Tiffany doesn’t have to load babies in the car,” he said. Jazzlyn attends preschool at Monroe Montessori.
In addition to a ballpark tour, seeing the dugout, a locker room and walking on the field, party guests saw the babies’ names light up the scoreboard.
Seattle Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale said the family had the standard birthday tour package, available for up to 20 people only on nongame days. The birthday kids received Mariner T-shirts and Edgar bears. Guests got to see Camden smear birthday cake all over his face.
Any parent who has negotiated names with a partner understands compromise.
“Tiffany wanted the Red Sox. We’d been to Boston, we like the whole tradition,” said Craig Rowland, who favored the name Huntington. “Tiffany didn’t want to give up Fenway.”
The names delight sports fans they meet. “One time we were waiting to get Carlton Fisk’s autograph and we had Fenway with us,” Craig said. “The guy in front of us thought that was so cool. He said he wanted to name his daughter ‘Hoops,’ but his wife wouldn’t let him.”
Camden, Brooklyn, Fenway, cute. Hoops? Gee, no, I don’t think so. It could have been worse for the Rowland trio.
Will anyone ever name their kids Safeco, Ameriquest or U.S. Cellular?
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