As a sports journalist it’s important to really dig your teeth into a good story. No greater mystery facing the sports world at the moment than the existence of two athletes named Hunter Renfroe/w. And the lack of media coverage for this important issue is deafening.
At first I only knew about Hunter Renfrow, mostly because he was someone I was told the Patriots were definitely drafting in 2019. To be honest if you told me Hunter Renfrow was the main character in a 90s teen drama or Disney original movie I’d believe you, but this guy is the physical embodiment of the name Hunter Renfrow.
And I went about my life, because I am normal and pay little to no attention to baseball whatsoever.
Living in Boston, however, I have recently starting hearing the name Hunter Renfro(e) on the radio in the 14 seconds it takes for me to unplug my phone from the car and take the key out of the ignition, because no one willingly listens to WEEI for longer than that.
Now I’m forced to face the reality that this man is also a Hunter Renfroe/w?
Hunter Renfroe is technically the original, but just 3 years later and 3 states over little Hunter Renfrow was born, both destined for mediocre professional sports careers. In 2013, Renfroe signed with the Padres for a $2,678,000 signing bonus. 6 years later and about 6 hours away, Hunter Renfrow signed a deal for….$2,835,948. Not sure it’s worth the extra $157,948 for the CTE but technically Hunter Renfrow is richer.
Both Renfroe and Renfrow are married, to their high school sweethearts.
At this point I have just heard no discussion or chatter about how weird it is that two professional athletes share such an uncommon name. Are there even any others cross sport? I’m going to leave that story out for some other journalists, can’t be monopolizing every story.
This is a really important story I hope the library of congress stores it in the “Important: Go Back And Look Into This” folder for future generations.