LA Angels Spring Training 2011: Kendry Morales Wants His Old Identity Back?

Ever since the Los Angeles Angels star first baseman defected from Cuba in 2004, he apparently has allowed the entire sports media and Los Angeles Angels fans to call him by a name that is not correct.

On Wednesday, Kendry Morales informed the press that his given name in Cuba, which appears on official birth documents, is actually Kendrys Morales.

When the Angels signed Morales after he left Cuba in 2004, he told then general manager Bill Stoneman that he wanted to drop the “s” off the back of his name.

"He was Kendry," Stoneman told the Los Angeles Times. "That's what we were told."

However, now Morales has had a change of heart and has let everyone know that he will use his given name, and expects everyone else to do the same.

It all started over the winter, when Morales started ordering gloves for the upcoming season through Rawlings. Morales informed Rawlings that he wanted his name stitched into the leather as Kendrys.

When the Angels got wind of it, he told management and clubhouse staff when he reported to camp that Kendrys was his given name, and that was the name he wanted to be known by.

So, what does this mean for Baseball Reference, Wikipedia and all the other information Web sites? Will there be two separate submissions for the slugging first baseman?

Morales, currently rehabbing from a broken left ankle suffered during a walk-off celebration at home plate following a game-winning grand slam home run on May 29 last year, still speaks very limited English and apparently, even the Cuban newspapers have a tendency to leave the “s” off of the back of people’s names.

So, the baseball media weren’t totally wrong with what they did by shortening his name.

By whatever name Kendrys Morales wants to be known, he needs to get back to rehabbing, so that his real baseball identity can return as well.

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