Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

chun18 · Joined: 05 Oct 2007 Posts: 3 Location: Taiwan

Hellow, I am a college student from Taiwan.
I am very curious about one thing.
Sometimes when I watch the MLB on TV, I saw there are some words behind the player's name are like Jr. or Sr.
Then, I have two small questions.One is that What these words mean? Is it one kind of last name? The second question is that what the possessive case of these name? Is " Jr.'s pen" right?

Thanks for your answer,first !!
Very Happy

Eric Thompson · Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 12:43 am Post subject:

Dear chun18: 'Jr.' is short for junior, 'Sr.' is short for senior. 'Junior' is the son of 'senior', and has the same first name as the father. Most likely, you didn't see the 'sr.' on the back of an MLB player, since fathers of players are generally at least 40 years old. There was a case in the early '90s when Ken Griffey, Sr. and Jr. were playing on the same team, Seattle. This past year you may have seen Tony Pena, Sr. coaching for the Yankees. His son, Jr., is a shortstop with the Kansas City Royals. Ok? -- Eric Smile