This Arkansas guard named after Dusty Baker is a really neat March Madness story

Arkansas shooting guard Dusty Hannahs doesn’t have a name that stops you in your tracks, until you find out he’s named after Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker. It’s one of the more curious March Madness factoids, and has a fascinating story behind it.

Dusty’s father, Gerry Hannahs spent four years in the majors as a pitcher for the Montreal Expos and Los Angeles Dodgers. He first met Baker in a club following a game during his rookie season in Montreal. Hannahs pitched against Baker earlier in the day, and when Baker saw his opponent later that night he approached him. The Dodgers’ star congratulated Hannahs for a good game and complimented his pitching.

Fate would bring the pair together the next year when Gerry Hannahs was traded to the Dodgers. The two players reconnected, now as teammates, and remained close friends ever since. Naturally when it came time to name his son Gerry immediately chose “Dusty,” honoring his friend.

“He’s just such a leader and was just a great human being and got so close to him. I just loved the nickname. I always told him that if I had a boy I was going to name him after him.”

Hannahs made good on the promise, and now Dusty Hannahs is playing in the NCAA tournament. It’s been a long road for the Arkansas guard. Now on his second team after transferring from Texas Tech, to play for the Razorbacks and it was unclear if he’d ever get to live out his March Madness dream.

Now it’s happened, and we learned a really cool story about his name in the process.