IS RED SOX RELIEVER ROBBIE ROSS CHIP OR ERNIE FROM “MY THREE SONS”?
It’s really not the time for making jollies at the Red Sox’ expense.
After all, last night (07/28/2016) in Anaheim they suffered their most embarrassing loss since God-knows-when.
Pulled the rug right out from under themselves.
Gave it away at the end on a gleaming silver platter.
Lotsa work to do for the players, the coaches, the management and the ownership.
So in times as dire as these we must search for a silver lining, a glimmer of hope, a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel, for some humor.
Because as my mother used to say, “It’s better to laugh dear…”
Red Sox reliever Robbie Ross I am certain would be thrilled to know that he looks exactly like one of the Livingston brothers — Stanley or Barry — who achieved modest fame and great notoriety as Chip and Ernie respectively on the 1960’s television sit-com, My Three Sons, an ABC /CBS jewel of the era, with 380 episodes aired.
Of course, this and a quarter wouldn’t get him a cup of coffee or a pack of gum these days, but the resemblance is striking for whatever it’s worth.
Clearly, Ross would have no idea who the Livingston brothers were or are for that matter.
And vice-versa.
Robbie Ross is 27 years old; Stanley and Barry Livingston are 65 and 62 years of age respectively.
Ross is a major league ballplayer and the Livingston boys couldn’t find their behinds with both hands buried deep in their back pockets.
They assuredly did not look the least bit athletic as Chip and Ernie when tossing a ball around with father Steve Douglas (Fred MacMurray) or Uncle Charlie O’Casey (William Frawley/William Demarest).
There is virtually nothing of any sort binding these three men together other than facial features.
The mouths really; the teeth in particular.
So how is it that people with different genealogies from different places and times can somehow look alike?
Is it purely coincidental or is there some human anatomical explanation?
Surely you’ve heard the notion espoused — perhaps fallaciously, perhaps not — that somewhere on this planet there walks somebody today who looks a lot like you. Maybe not exactly like you, but very much like you.
Your double.
Your doppelganger.
Does everybody have one?
Due to the limited number of genes that impact and influence facial features, the chances are pretty good.
Michael Sheehan, an assistant professor of neurobiology and behavior at Cornell posits for the layperson or maybe even for the gambling type, “If you shuffle that deck of cards so many times, at some point, you get the same hand dealt to you twice.”
And the fact that human faces are inheritable lends itself to the possibility, remote that it may be, that perfect strangers who look alike could be more closely related (with no knowledge of it) than those folks who do not.
Bearing in mind that the world population has grown exponentially from one billion in the early-1900’s to over 7 billion today, Sheehan again simplifies this fascinating phenomenon by saying, “If you have enough people, you’re going to end up with someone who doesn’t look so crazily different.”
Red Sox reliever Robbie Ross and child actors Stanley and Barry Livingston have achieved success in their lifetime’s chosen pursuits.
They all look alike and don’t know it.
They don’t know one another.
Moral of the story?
Be a good person for all the right reasons.
Because someone who looks like you could very well be watching you.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in July 2016.]
ADDENDUM:
Since pitching for the Red Sox, Robbie Ross signed minor league deals with the White Sox in 2018 and the Pirates in 2019. He was released by both clubs and in June 2019 he signed with the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He was released in July 2019.
