The odds of meeting someone with your exact name are relatively high. The odds of that person also being a minor league baseball pitcher who stands exactly 6-foot-4 with red hair, a red beard, and thick glasses are astronomically low. But for two men, both named Brady Feigl, this statistical impossibility is their real life.
The two pitchers look so similar that they have baffled teammates, fans, and even medical professionals for years. The resemblance is so uncanny that Inside Edition eventually stepped in to conduct a DNA test to see if they were actually long-lost brothers.
The two Bradys first became aware of each other’s existence through a bizarre medical mix-up in 2015. Both players underwent the exact same elbow procedure—Tommy John surgery—performed by the exact same doctor, Dr. James Andrews.
“I was probably six or seven months out of surgery and their office called our trainer and said, ‘Hey, when’s Brady reporting for surgery? Is he getting down here tomorrow?’” the younger Feigl recounted to The Clarion-Ledger.
The confusion was immediate. “He was like, ‘He had it six months ago. What are you talking about?’” Brady explained. “That’s how I found out there were two of us.”
The identity crisis continued in 2017. As reported by the New York Post, the University of Mississippi’s baseball team accidentally tagged the wrong Brady Feigl in a birthday tribute on Twitter. The pitcher had to jump in to correct the record, replying, “Wrong Brady Feigl... Might be looking for @bfeigl39…”
Finally, in 2019, the pair decided to settle the mystery once and for all. Inside Edition brought the two men together to swap stories and spit into test tubes. The question on everyone's mind was simple: Were they separated at birth?
Brady Feigl in February 2019.InsideEdition via Wikimedia Commons
The results were anticlimactic yet fascinating. The test revealed they were not related in any way. They did, however, share a very specific ancestral link. "It says I'm 53 percent Germanic Europe," one Brady noted, a trait shared by his counterpart.
Despite the lack of a biological bond, the two men formed a friendship over their shared absurdity. "We're still brothers in a way I guess," one Brady said. The other agreed: "And we're always going to be Brady Feigl."
While their case is extreme, science suggests it isn't unique. A study published in the journal Cell Reports and highlighted by Smithsonian Magazine examined "doppelgangers" who look alike but aren't related. Researchers found that many of these lookalikes share common genetic variations.
As Manel Esteller, a geneticist at Spain’s Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, explained to Gizmodo’s Ed Cara: “These pairs are therefore like virtual twins.” For the two Brady Feigls, "virtual twins" is the perfect description for a coincidence that defies the odds.
Brady Feigl, doppelgangers, baseball, DNA test, virtual twins, Tommy John surgery, Inside Edition, genetics, coincidence, lookalikes YouTube
This article originally appeared last year.
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