Jose Cruz Jr. played six mediocre seasons for the Toronto Blue Jays.
There’s a street named for him in Mississauga.
It’s just down the road from Escobar Crescent, named for Kelvim Escobar, an inconsistent former Jays pitcher who was once sued for allegedly drugging a woman and having sex with her without her consent.
Which is adjacent to Clemens Crescent, named for pitcher Roger Clemens, who was accused in 2008 of both using steroids and having an affair with a country singer that began when she was 15.
Few people in the Mavis Road and Highway 401 neighbourhood, in which at least 15 streets are named for baseball players, are even faintly aware of the athletic origins of their addresses.
There are several other thematically named neighbourhoods in the GTA. Also in Mississauga, there a streets that are named for musical instruments.
“They all joke about my street,” said Kazoo Court resident Sara Fattah, 13. “They’re like, ‘Why? Does everyone on the street have kazoos?’”
Street names, typically proposed by developers, must be approved by municipal governments. They are sometimes rejected.
Breeders Circle, the proposed name of a north Toronto street on a site where horses were once kept, was changed in 2002 to Green Meadows Circle “due to concerns from future residents of the subdivision that the street name ‘Breeders Circle’ has derogatory connotations,” City of Toronto records note.
