Dating those with the same exact name does not appear to be a widespread public issue but apparently it did come up for Giants World Series hero Madison Bumgarner. Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci wrote a fantastic piece on Bumgarner in honor of him being named SI Sportsman of the Year and it included a very odd bit.
Before he dated [his wife] Ali, he dated a girl named Madison Bumgarner (“No relation, I’m sure of it”)….
Kevin Bumgarner lives across the street from the Center Grove Baptist Church on Deal Mill Road in Hudson. In the cemetery adjacent to the church is buried an Adam Bumgarner. And a Barbara Bumgarner. And a Calvin Bumgarner, and a Delia Bumgarner, and on and on and on. Of the 305 interments in Center Grove Baptist Cemetery, 55 are Bumgarners, beginning chronologically with Michael Lee Davidson Bumgarner, who was born in 1832. His father, Thomas, was born in 1810 and is buried in nearby Granite Falls, one of 192 Bumgarners buried in Caldwell County. So many Bumgarners took root here that this stretch of Deal Mill Road came to be known about a hundred years ago as Bumtown. In addition to the Madison Bumgarner he dated at South Caldwell High, there is another girl named Madison Bumgarner enrolled now in the school.
[For the Win via Sports Illustrated]
Photo Courtesy: Sporting News
