If you search Baseball Reference for Johnni Turbo you won’t turn up any results. Sure, you say, that’s because there’s no ballplayer known as Johnni Turbo. I know what you’re thinking but no, I’m not about to tell you about some obscure right fielder who plays in Liga Argentina de Béisbol and goes by the name of Johnni Turbo. Rather, we’re going to spend a few moments discussing how cool it is that in May of this year D’Arby Myers decided to officially change his name to Johnni Turbo.
Turbo currently plays for the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. Prior to that, he spent many years in both the affiliated minor leagues and unaffiliated ball ranks. Turbo’s career hasn’t been particularly remarkable. That’s not a knock on him in any way. He’s never been a subpar player, but he’s never progressed beyond being a competent one. Now, as a thirty-two-year-old, he has decided to change his name from D’Arby Myers to Johnni Turbo.
I’m not one hundred percent clear on where he is drawing the moniker from. Perhaps it is from the Johnny Turbo video game character, but in reality, it doesn’t much matter why Turbo now wants to be called, well, Turbo. What matters is that the Ducks’ outfielder is all in on his new name. His Twitter profile has a bio that simply states, “The Fastest American Alive.” A quick look through his social media reveals a seemingly well-adjusted dude who simply thinks he is really, really fast.
The best part of this is that outside of the past few years Turbo has never been a “Fastest American Alive” threat on the basepaths. Sure, he stole double-digit bases in virtually every year of his career. That being said, his career-high was 38 in 2019. That’s right, the guy who now calls himself Turbo has never stolen more than 38 bases in a season. That fact makes the whole thing pretty funny with an air of absurdity. But hey, maybe now that he’s leaning into his name Turbo will steal a truckload of bases for the Ducks this year. One can only hope he’ll fly around the Atlantic League basepaths in 2021.
Lead photo courtesy of George A. Faella – Newsday
