Last month when the Reds called up Christian Encarnacion-Strand, he broke a record the minute he stepped onto the field. Encarnacion-Strand became the major league player with the longest full name in history, 27 characters. Encarnacion-Strand doesn't have many cards yet, it's mostly all Bowman, Panini Elite Extra and Pro Debut. But they've already got his name down in terms of squeezing it onto a card. This one, I can kind of hear the panic in the graphic artist's voice -- it barely makes it into the name slot. It's pushing the Mighty Mussel guy a little more into the border than on other cards in the set. But with graphic design programs, I'm sure fitting a name into a space is a lot easier than it once was, even with the longer and longer names -- as far as baseball is concerned anyway. Encarnacion-Strand (whose uniform just reads "Encarnacion") broke a record that hadn't lasted very long, only a year. The previous record-holder was Simeon Woo...
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