I believe the technical aspects of the question are adequately addressed above--I'd go for the capital letters character class, personally.

That said, you're going to have trouble with this, one way or another--bell hooks doesn't play in the National League, but J.T. Snow does, as do Bobby Jones and Bobby Jones, not to mention two each of C. Jones and T. Jones (okay, one of those plays in the AL...). Martínez will give you similar issues, and Rodríguez is a mild pain as well (as is Smith, while we're at it).

Sure you can't deal with the long names?

Of course, I don't think any of those pairs play for the same team these days, so you're pretty safe if you stick to box scores. But I'd still be nervous doing it.