In a recent issue, we devoted some space to one couple, Jeff and
  Cathy Stefanick, who named their son Mattingly Francis Stefanick.
     A few days later my phone rang. It was Mal Romanin of Toronto.
     "When I read that, my eyes popped right out of my head and my wife
  hit the floor," said the proud father of Mattingly Francis Romanin,
  who just turned one.
     Romanin grew up in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and his entire family
  has always been Yankee fans.
     "So is Mattingly, he just doesn't know it yet," Romanin said.
  But one member of the current Romanin household who is not a Yankee
  fan is wife Mariellen.
     She's a Blue Jays fan who's expecting the second little Romanin
  next month. Since it's her turn to pick the name, she's chosen
  Carter.
     I obviously had them falling down all over the place. Harry
  Packman, Jr., of New York wrote:
     "I nearly fainted the other day (never a good thing to do on a New
  York City subway) when I read your article.
     "Four-and-a-half years ago, when my daughter Kelli was born, my
  wife and I had `settled' on the name Mattingly if Kelli had been a
  boy. `Settled' because I was still arguing for Mickey and she was
  begging for anything else.
     "The debate resumed two years later when my second daughter
  Kristina was born. Had she been a boy, she definitely would have
  been Mattingly Packman.
     "Now, as you might have guessed, we are expecting our third child.
  Mattingly or she is due this month, and I had planned on sending
  Don a birth announcement thinking he might get a kick out of it.
  Now he would obviously just think I am some copying loser.
     "I did feel I needed to write to you and set the record straight as
  to who was the first person to think of Mattingly as a first name.
  The man whose house we bought a year ago is a major sports
  memorabilia dealer and got such a kick out of our name selection
  that he promised to send me Mattingly's 1985 uniform to hang over
  the baby's crib.
     "If we have a boy, we are still going to name him Mattingly, but I
  must tell you that your article did put a huge damper on the whole
  thing."
     Chad Warnock of Roanoke, Va., wrote: "My 13-month-old son happens
  to share the Mattingly name also. His name is Brandon Mattingly
  Warnock. If you drop the `Bran' from his name you've got Don
  Mattingly.
     "My wife was understanding enough of my love for baseball and the
  Yankees to allow me to pick my son's name. I think I came up with a
  good one. By the way, I call him Bucky, after my other favorite
  Yankee: Bucky Dent."
     Jeff Stevenson of Toronto (he's in the same stat baseball league as
  Mal Romanin) wrote to Clubhouse: "I named my 2 1/2-year-old son
  (with my wife's permission) Tris, after Tris Speaker."
     Bob Andrews of Channelview, Texas, is a transplanted Baltimorean
  who got to name two kids after heroes in one day: "On July 17,
  1989, my wife Lorraine gave birth to twin boys . . . Brooks
  Robinson Andrews and Jim (James) Palmer Andrews. It only took a
  little bit of persuasion for my wife to go along with my choices. I
  only had to tell her my next two preferences were Moe Drabowsky
  Andrews and Elrod Hendricks Andrews!"
     Finally, my Aunt Rhoda called me and just said, "Satchel."
  I replied, "Huh?"
     "Woody Allen and Mia Farrow named their son Satchel after Satchel
  Paige."


Copyright 1994, USA TODAY BASEBALL WEEKLY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc.                       

Winston, Lisa, More kids playing name game - Yankee star inspires new generation of Mattinglys., BASEBALL WEEKLY, 04-27-94 pg.34