Alright, let’s talk about something that crossed my mind recently. I was keeping up with some baseball, you know, checking scores and highlights. I saw the name Bryan De La Cruz playing for the Marlins. Then, not long after, I saw all the buzz around Elly De La Cruz with the Reds. Both young guys, both Dominican, both got that same last name. My first thought, like probably a lot of folks, was “Okay, are these guys related? Brothers? Cousins maybe?” It just seemed like a natural connection.
So, I decided to actually check it out. Didn’t want to just wonder. Fired up my computer, went straight to the search bar. My first search was pretty basic, something like:
- bryan de la cruz elly de la cruz family
- are bryan and elly de la cruz brothers
- de la cruz baseball players related
Got a bunch of results back, naturally. Lots of sports articles talking about both players because they’re both pretty exciting to watch. Some fan forums had people asking the exact same question I was. I started clicking through a few of the more promising links. I skipped past the fan stuff mostly, looking for something a bit more solid.
I spent some time looking through player bios on a couple of the big sports stats websites. You know, the ones that list birthplace, debut date, all that stuff. Checked Bryan’s page, then Elly’s page. Looked for any mention of family connections in the little bio sections they sometimes have. Didn’t see anything linking them.
Then I specifically searched for articles that might have interviewed them or discussed their backgrounds. I figured if they were related, especially being prominent players, it would have been mentioned somewhere official, like an MLB news piece or a feature story.
What I Found Out
After digging around for a bit, reading through several articles and checking those bios, the answer became pretty clear. Nope, they aren’t related. It seems it’s just a classic case of sharing a common last name, which is apparently pretty frequent in the Dominican Republic. Both are talented players rising through the ranks, but they don’t share a family connection.
So, that was my little investigation. Started with a simple assumption based on a name and origin, did some basic online searching, sifted through the noise, and found the confirmation. Just goes to show, you can’t always assume based on a last name, even in the sports world!
