DAILY DIRT: The tale of those MLB Aurelios defies probability

September 2, 2024 | By Steve Eighinger Muddy River News Minister of Culture and Doctor of Love

Aurelio Alejandro López Rios (September 21, 1948 – September 22, 1992) was a Mexican professional baseball player. He spent eleven seasons (1974, 1978–87) with four teams in Major League Baseball — a majority of it spent with the Detroit Tigers. He acquired the nickname "Señor Smoke" in Detroit and pitched on their 1984 World Series winning team.

**Daily Dirt for Monday, Sept. 2, 2024**

What are the odds? Just read on … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,047 of The Daily Dirt

1. This one caused me to legitimately shake my head.

It might be one of the weirdest strange-but-true stories I’ve come across in a long, long, long time.

First of all, there have been three players named Aurelio play Major League Baseball: Aurelio Monteagudo, Aurelio Lopez and Aurelio Rodriguez.

Secondly, all three of those Aurelios met with a vehicle-related death at a relatively young age.”(Baseball) produces amazing moments and improbable occurrences,” observed writer Ryan Fagan a few years ago. “And sometimes it produces things that are nearly impossible to believe, like this. The only three players in major league history to share this particular first name also share the same basic cause of death. Sadly, it’s true. Two were in cars, and one was hit by a car.”

Monteagudo played in the majors from 1963 to 1973 and died in 1990 at 46 years old. Rodriguez played in MLB from 1967-83 and died in 2000 at 52. Lopez was a big leaguer from 1974-87 and died in 1992 at age 44.

The chance of an occurrence of this nature, according to an MIT professor, was one in 35 to 42.6 billion.

“To put this in baseball terms, the odds of this happening are roughly equal to Ty Cobb — owner of MLB’s highest career batting average, at .366 — getting 24 hits in 24 consecutive at-bats, or a batter with a .250 career average getting 18 hits in a row,” Fagan wrote.

2. Did you know (Part 110)

That Kevin Bacon’s role in “Footloose” was originally meant for Tom Cruise.
That Jim Carrey was the first choice — not Michael Myers — to play Dr. Evil in in the Austin Powers films.
That the “Dirty Harry” movies were originally supposed to feature Frank Sinatra, not Clint Eastwood. I’m not sure how or why it all worked out as it did, but I think the powers-to-be ultimately got it right.
That the first two choices for Leslie Nielsen’s role in “Airplane” were Vincent Price and Christopher Lee.
That the original picks for Robert Hays’ role in “Airplane” were David Letterman and Caitlyn (then known as Bruce) Jenner.

3. If you have tattoos and would like to have them preserved forever, there is a company that can remove them from your body and frame them for all to see as some sort of bizarre keepsake.

According to the British tabloid, The Daily Mail, a company called Save My Ink allows tattoo enthusiasts to bequeath an actual part of themselves “just like a house, wedding ring or any other cherished possession”.

The tattooed skin is put through a chemical and enzymatic process to permanently alter the chemical structure of the tissue and stop it from decaying, which permits to be hung on a loved one’s wall (framed, of course) … forever.

Steve Thought O’ The Day – I think I’m most surprised that only three MLB players have ever been named Aurelio, considering all the Latin talent who have reached the big leagues.