Hanley Ramírez, Shakespeare, and a birth certificate typo

Growing up, Hanley Ramírez was one of my favourite ballplayers. A precocious protégé, he broke out with the Marlins in 2006, just as my baseball addiction hit its first apogee. That season, Ramírez was named National League Rookie of the Year, and subsequent growth established him as a five-tool stud with legendary potential. 

My adolescent brain thought Hanley had a shot at the rare 400-homers, 400-steals plateau, such was his raw talent, but a laconic outlook made him a frustrating enigma. Long sequestered in the Florida doldrums, Ramírez later saw daylight with the Red Sox and Dodgers before ending his career with the Guardians. And though he made three All-Star teams and won the 2009 batting title, Hanley became something of a cautionary tale – his legacy one of enormous unfulfilled potential.

Nevertheless, Ramírez always retained a special place in my heart, and I was thrilled to meet him in 2023 during a Trafalgar Square fan event as part of the MLB London Series. Representing the Red Sox in a contrived ‘home run derby’ showcase, Ramírez signed a baseball for me, and it still has pride of place in my home study. I was awestruck in his presence, and the souvenir is a cherished possession.

Indeed, whenever I look at that baseball, an obscure Hanley Ramírez fact springs to mind – even before bygone vignettes of him tearing around the bases or obliterating a hanging slider. Bizarrely, the fact relates to Shakespeare, and it is too stupendous to ignore.

You see, way back in the winter of 1983, Isabela and Toribio Ramírez faced a dilemma. Awaiting their first child, the Dominican couple could not settle on a suitable name. One day, tired of the back and forth, Toribio’s mother made a cheeky suggestion: Hamlet, the very archetype of indecision. The family matriarch was an avid reader of Shakespeare, and the quip came to her spontaneously. Out of ideas, Isabela and Toribio ran with it, intending to name their son after the fictional prince of Denmark.

All went according to plan on 23 December 1983, as the boy was born healthy in the Dominican resort town of Samaná. However, while filing the birth certificate, a clerk made a typing error, mistaking ‘Hamlet’ for ‘Hanley,’ an established – though rare – name in Dominican tradition. Unperturbed, the parents never bothered to change the typo, leaving Hanley to imbue his esoteric moniker with fresh meaning.

The rest, as they say, is history. Hanley was raised in the Los Girasoles barrio of Santo Domingo, before signing with the Red Sox as an international free agent in 2000. A blockbuster trade sent him to the Marlins, before a rollercoaster ride embarked on Los Angeles, Boston and Cleveland.

The typo story was first unearthed by Molly Knight in The Best Team Money Can Buy, her brilliant 2015 book on the Dodgers’ ascendance. “I don’t really know why they didn’t change it back,” Ramírez told Knight. “But that’s okay, because I love my name. It’s a good name, right?”

There is nothing either good or bad, dear Hanley, but thinking makes it so.