Naming the Random Street Near the Dumpsters

[I’ll gladly sign any petition to make Maranville Street official.]
While perusing my local subreddit recently, I read about a delightful monkeyshine perpetrated by user u/AggravatingSmoke1829, whose real name looks to be Brendan. While I can’t vouch for the authenticity of Brendan’s story, I can say that I dearly hope it’s true:

During the COVID lockdown…I noticed a small, unnamed street next to the Hancock Village townhome complex near where I live, and since Google Maps lets you suggest edits, I thought it would be funny to send one for this random street near the dumpsters. I named it Maranville Street after one of my favorite old-timey baseball players, who has an epic name, Rabbit Maranville, and sent the edit without thinking much of it.

I was surprised to get an e-mail two days later from Google saying my edit was approved, and sure enough, Maranville Street was now on the map (it still is).

Not only did Google Maps accept this edit, it was eventually picked up Boston’s bus system. The MBTA’s 51 bus now has stops both at Maranville and opposite it. A year later, Brandon was quite shocked, and no doubt also amused, when he heard this stop announced as he rode the bus.

At present, it is still possible to find Maranville Street on Google Maps. I fear it may disappear sometime soon, so I will immortalize it here:

Over on Apple Maps, there is currently no Maranville Street to be found in Boston. I’m honestly not sure if that says good or bad things about the service. I can say that a search for “Maranville Street, Boston, MA” repeatedly returned a useless result in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, some 650 miles away:

So, uh, keep up the work there, Apple Maps. Keep up the work.

Using the “Report Something Missing” option, I’m doing my part to make Maranville Street stick back up in Boston:

🤞 Fingers crossed!

To close, here’s a snippet of Baseball Hall-of-Famer Rabbit Maranville’s Wikipedia page:

Maranville was known as one of “baseball’s most famous clowns” due to his practical jokes and lack of inhibitions. He used to don a pair of glasses to make fun of umpires and mimic the actions of hitters or pitchers who took an especially long time to get ready. Other stunts he pulled included throwing firecrackers, stepping out on hotel ledges, and swallowing goldfish. On a road trip to New York, Maranville had teammate Jack Scott cry “Stop, thief!” as Scott chased him through Times Square. Another time, his concerned teammates broke into his hotel room after hearing screams, breaking glass, and gunshots emanating from within, as well as Maranville groaning, “Eddie, you’re killing me!” An unharmed Maranville and two friends greeted the players like nothing was wrong as they wandered out of the room

It’s clear that “Maranville” is a very fitting choice for this bit of guerrilla street naming. Those are some mighty fine shenanigans, there, Brandon, and I salute you.