The Old Curmudgeons Are Right: Baseball Nicknames Useta Be Way Better
If you’re anything like me, you despise the dearth of imagination in the nickname-industrial complex, which nowadays requires that every nicknameless athlete be referred to by their first initial and the first three letters of their last name. From time to time, a decent nickname will slip through the cracks — Carlos “El Caballo” Lee, David “Big Papi” Ortiz, Covelli “Coco” Crisp — but this relative paucity only highlights their general absence. Many of the nicknames that break the paradigm are derivative of previous ones: Francisco Rodriguez’s “K-Rod” is a takeoff on Alex Rodriguez’s A-Rod, just as Jason Heyward’s “J-Hey Kid” recalls Willie Mays’s “Say Hey Kid”, and Derek Jeter’s “Mr. November” recalls Reggie Jackson’s “Mr. October.”
I was reading Robert Creamer’s terrific biography of Casey Stengel (born Charles, nicknamed “Casey” and “The Old Perfessor”), and I was struck by just how weird yet pervasive and evocative the nicknames used to be. The following passage about the 1913 Brooklyn Dodgers really did it for me:
Best of all, Robby [manager Wilbert Robinson] found an impressive young pitcher named Ed Pfeffer to take Rucker’s place as ace of the staff. Pfeffer, a big strong right-hander, was nicknamed Jeff after his brother Frank, who had pitched in the National League some years earlier and had been called Big Jeff after Jim Jeffries, the heavyweight boxing champion. His kid brother inherited the name.
Just marvel at that flight of fancy: because of a prizewinning boxer who’d retired in 1905, two brothers named Edward and Francis wound up being named “Big Jeff” and “Jeff.” Nowadays, they might have been called Eddie and Frankie, or maybe Ed and Frank; anything but Big Jeff and Jeff. Robby Robinson himself had a nickname so well-known that during his entire managerial tenure with the club, the Dodgers were known as the Robins. (Other players on that squad included George “Nap” Rucker, Ross “Tex” Erwin, James “Red” Smith, and, best by far, Fred “Mysterious” Walker.)
Of course, plenty of old-time nicknames were hackneyed, too, as SABR member Rick Solensky discovered hundreds of baseball players named “Lefty,” “Dutch,” “Doc,” “Deacon,” “Bull,” “Moose,” “Rabbit,” “Red,” and “Kid.” But even those could have their moments. Two of Stengel’s early mentors were Charles “Kid” Nichols and one of my personal favorites, Norman Elberfeld, the Tabasco Kid. So maybe, once upon a time, those names got worn out from overuse. But I wouldn’t mind seeing a few of them return. I certainly doubt Johnny “Big Cat” Mize minded when Andres Galarraga dusted off his nickname and wore it well. It’s such a good name it would have been a shame to use it just once.
Maybe I’m being melodramatic. But I think it’s a shame that, with a few notable exceptions — Chipper, Boof, and Joba, bless your hearts — players are nightly announced to bat with the first names their mothers gave them. Look up and down any major league lineup, and you’ll see nary a Preacher nor a Schoolboy, neither a Dizzy nor a Dazzy, nor a Duke nor a Skoonj. Instead, you might find a V-Mart or an F-Mart, a K-Rod or an A-Rod or an I-Rod. Without question, the baseball that’s been played in this Year of the Pitcher has been truly transcendent. It’s just a shame we lack nicknames to match.
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If he was worth following anymore Pronk Hafner would be pretty good.
Agreed.
Where are the Oil Can Boyd’s and Catfish Hunter’s of the world? Even in the 90s, we had some good ones. The Big Unit, The Big Hurt, Kid Dynamite, Big Daddy. But part of baseball’s heritage is built on the lore of the game and guys named Shoeless Joe Jackson or The Yankee Clipper. It seems silly that someday I will tell my kids about Albert Pujols and the only nickname I can think of associated to him is “Winnie the Pooh-jols.”
Phat Albert and Prince Albert aren’t terrible, nor is King Felix. We’ve always had nickname royalty. But I wish there were more anarchically wacky nicknames to go with them.
Another problem with Prince Albert: it’s slang for having your penis pierced. Seriously:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=prince+albert
Dude! Albert has one of the coolest nicknames in baseball right now: The Machine! Tell your kid about a guy name The Machine vs a guy named Winnie the Pooh-jols and he’ll be much happier to listen. (really? Pooh-jols?)
“The Machine”? Seriously? A) This is the first time I’ve ever heard that nickname for him, and B) it’s not that good. I prefer to call him “Poo Holes” or just “Pooper.”
Why yes, I am a Cubs fan. Why do you ask?
Panda Sandoval?
I liked Fat Ichiro better, but it doesn’t work so well when he’s hitting .276.
Not to mention his teamates the Freak, Buster, Pat the Bat, and Huff Daddy.
How could you leave out “Cactus” Gavvy Cravath?
You refer to Ivan Rodriguez as I-Rod but left out his far superior nickname, Pudge.
I-Rod is the one that irritates me the most, because he already had a decent nickname (Pudge) when the whole *-Rod thing came about.
Pudge Rodriguez was a great nickname; I-Rod is an abomination. Pronk is really good too, and “Kung Fu Panda,” quite frankly, is a better nickname than the movie it’s taken from.
I prefer to call him Dr. Hafner, completely random between me and my friends, but he is the Doctor…Doctor Hafner that is…it has a good ring to it, you must admit.
Carlton Fisk was the first Pudge, so we need to find a worthy heir for that one.
Ivan’s pretty worthy of Pudge. I mean, the guy’s a future HOF.
Related to calling Pudge I-Rod is “Man-Ram”. The guy’s already Manny. He’s just so very… Manny.
Man-Ram? Really?
Brooks Conrad has been dubbed Raw Dog by Chipper Jones since he doesn’t wear batting gloves. It sounds really awkward when Chip Caray says it.
Yikes. “raw dog” doesn’t have the best connotation..
moving on-Big Hurt and Crime Dog are two great nicknames as well
I am going to just start making up nicknames for players when I refer to them from now on. Like Ben “Gooch” Zobrist.
Zobrist already has a good one born out of his 2009 power spike: Zorilla.
The power is already gone, so he should lose the nickname, just like “Big Game” James should lose his. So Zobrist is now Gooch.
I liked “The BZA”, as if he were a Wu-Tang member.
Anytime we can combine baseball and the Wu-Tang Clan, we owe it to our children and our children’s children to do it.
Never got to the bigs, but my baseball nickname was Planet. I was a pitcher. You can imagine how that came to be. My current nickname at work is Tumbleweed.
You just need to find someone that is good at giving nicknames. Or follow the Kobe route and give yourself a nickname.
The Royals had a self-nicknamed minor league pitcher, Chris “Disco” Hayes, a name he hung on himself because he’s a submariner whose ball “doesn’t get out of the ’70s.” Sadly, he was released in July. I hope somebody else gives him a shot.
I was just thinking of this the other day when some trivia question popped up that included “Sudden” Sam McDowell. There are scattered examples of good ones these days, but it does seem like there were infinitely better nicknames in the past; a lot of that is certainly selective memory (the bad ones, after all, vanish to the mists of time), but you don’t get a lot of ’3-Finger’s these days. Mostly, you just get announcers (I’m looking at you here, Dave Sims) shortening a name and adding ‘ie’ to the end of it. I swear, if I have to hear ‘Lopie’ one more time…
(Also, Doug ‘Eye Chart’ Gwosdz. That is all.)
Three Finger Brown, at least, made it easy on sportswriters. But I’m totally with you. Sudden Sam McDowell, and Black Jack McDowell, and Bullet Joe Rogan, and Bullet Joe Bush, and Smokey Joe Wood…
I certainly hope that Disco Hayes catches on somewhere. But how in the world can R.A. Dickey, who is the easiest player to root for in the big leagues, be nicknameless? Can we all agree to call him “Tricky,” or “Knucksie,” at least, until someone actually comes up with an honest-to-God nickname for him?
Haha Tricky Dickey – Now thats a nickname!
We could go back to the mid-90′s when the M’s had nicknames (Big Unit, Junior, A-Rod, Bone) that were all plausible references to a particular piece of anotomy.
I have the best nickname.
It is Peanuts Lowrey’s birthday tomorrow. (Born Harry Lee) http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lowrepe01.shtml
At least we don’t call people “Chief” and “Dummy” anymore.
Dave Niehaus (the Mariners’ announcer) called Freddy Garcia the Big Chief because he looked like the character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
I didn’t know how that nickname came about but now that I do I’m a big fan of it.
Speaking of Niehaus, when he called Franklin Gutierrez “Death to Flying Things” I was puzzled. Seemed like such a modern thing for Dave to say.
Then I found out it was the nickname of two different guys (Bob Ferguson and Jack Chapman) who played over 100 years ago.
It’s a little unweildy and not quite in the same mold as “Chief” or “Pudge” but it’s evocative.
Jim Tracy refers to Ubaldo as Chief too.
There are more decent ones out there than you think. People have already mentioned Pronk and Kung Fu-Panda, but there’s Big Donkey, The Flyin’ Hawaiian, and The Greek God of Walks. Even O-Dog and Pat the Bat are decent nicknames.
Recently retired there’s El Duque, and a favorite of mine (the name, not the player) “The Mayor” Sean Casey.
I always liked the Mayor and El Duque. (Speaking of Duque, I just realized that many of my favorite recent nicknames have belonged to Hispanic players: El Duque, El Caballo, Big Papi, Rich “El Guapo” Garces, Dennis “El Presidente” Martinez… and it’s hard to argue with Juan Marichal, the Dominican Dandy.)
I haven’t heard people calling Youk the Greek God of Walks much any more, now that he’s better known and he’s made it clear that he doesn’t really like the name, because he isn’t Greek. It’s too bad. It’s a great nickname, even if it is factually incorrect.
I like Big Donkey. I don’t hear that much. I also like Alex Gonzalez’s nickname, “Sea Bass” — anyone know where he got that one?
The Mayor has to be the best of the generation, its funny, different and actually means something.
At Razzball they call Mark Reynolds “Mini-donkey” and Ian Stewart “Mini-mini-donkey”. I don’t think those are in wide usage, though.
Mini-Donkey!!!
I take a Mini-Donkey over the Eeyore that has been milling around on my fantasy team’s roster
Choooooch
I’m surprised he wasn’t mentioned earlier
With how much my new friend loves Ruiz, Chooch was the first nickname I thought of.
my favorite current nickname is Derek Holland regularly being referred to as The Dutch Oven.
Lesser Texas Ranger nicknames include Josh “Hambone” Hamilton, Colby “Cobra” Lewis, Tommy “Big Game” Hunter (after the video game), and Elvis “Tiny E” Andrus
Currently I am partial to “The Mexicutioner.”
of course, I didn’t hear that one until tonight :-)
“The Mexicutioner” has always been one of my favorites. It’s got the perfect cross-section of being both bad-ass and racially insensitive.
I’m fond of Chairman Mauer, although it hasn’t really caught fire yet. (courtesy TwinkieTown)
I though he was Baby Jesus?
Sticking with Twins player: Liriano’s “Franchise” nickname is pretty good.
Or a former player: Kent “Can I buy a Vowel” Hrbek. I think that one is from Chris Berman.
“Nowadays, they might have been called Eddie and Frankie, or maybe Ed and Frank.”
Wouldn’t they be called “E-Pfeff” and “F-Pfeff” now? Say that second one five times fast.
Everyone is forgetting the best modern day nickname for a ballplayer, The Freak.
The commercial ruined that one. He’s now either the Freaky Franchise or Big Time Timmy-Jim.
My favorite for current ballplayers is “Big Donkey” for Adam Dunn, mainly because it seems to fit so well. It’s probably just me, but Dunn looks like a big donkey. I think “Pronk” is the cleverest nickname in recent years.
My nominee for the worst nickname I saw today: LoMo.
Hey, if we’re discussing great nicknames we can’t leave out Terry “Fat Tub of Goo” Forster.
How do you write an article about baseball player nicknames and not mention perhaps the best of them all, Oil Can Boyd?
PS….Buster Posey’s name is Gerald Demp Posey III. Buster, indeed, is a nickname.
Oil Can Boyd is probalby my favorite nickname of all time.
Recent, the Mariners have established a tradition of honoring Oil Can Boyd by having one reliever each season earn the nickname “Gas Can.”
Or at least that’s the best explanation I can come up with for Julio Mateo, Rick White, Sean White…
That must be in honor of Heathcliff Slocumb — who shall always have the nickname “firestarter” in my head, after his performance in the bullpen. To think that Mariners traded both Derek Lowe AND Jason Varitek for that glob of napalm…
pirates fans seem to save their best nicknames for terrible relievers. ryan “the white flag” vogelsong and franquelis “wreck specs” osoria come to mind.
what else… jose “slowpoke rodriguez” castillo. “joggin ronny” paulino. jose “joey bats” bautista. salomon “sully” torres. “smilin’ joe” randa.
recently there was also brandon “mossome” moss (sadly undeserved) and adam and andy laroche being known as mario and luigi.
What about Gerald Dempsey Posey III? aka Buster.
My all-time favorite nickname is probably Losing Pitcher Mulcahy. Not very kind, but pretty funny.
fat elvis!!!!!
Who says great nicknames are dead? LMAO!
The Big Puma(Berkman) and Vlad the Impaler are great nicknames… in basketball you got Dirk Diggler and the Big Aristotle.
As stated, Big Donkey is also a classic.
Considering how the internet has changed our ability to communicate, it’s weird that the nicknames small groups devise can’t become widespread, but maybe that’s because the communities that come up with nicknames are insular. In the past the MSM could dictate the nickname, and who were the readers to come up with their own?
I’m not sure about your question mark, but I think your statement is correct. “King Felix,” for one, came from a blog, and is now ubiquitous. After reading the comments, I now sincerely hope Chairman Mauer catches on.
I just don’t think it will — it’s too Chinese. The NBA already has Chairman Yao and Chairman Yi — that latter being particularly funny because of that famous scouting video that went around where his “sparring partner” was a chair…
I think you’re absolutely right. In most cases, the most florid nicknames were the exclusive creation of one writer’s pen, some Grantland Rice or Damon Runyan whom everyone read. With the blogosphere in full bloom, it’s certainly a lot harder for a complicated nickname to catch on.
The Mexicutioner and Kung Fu Panda are both recent examples of a nickname beating the odds and gaining public acceptance, or at least relatively public acceptance, but it’s not easy.
Still, ESPN has even greater reach than the New York sportswriters had back in the day. If they actually came up with good nicknames — and no one other than Chris Berman bothers to try, and don’t get me started — they’d have a pretty good chance of spreading those nicknames.
Well, the reason the Mexicutioner caught on is because the Royals held a poll to see what nickname should be Soria’s nickname. If your fan base votes on it, it would be kind of hard for it to not catch on.
The Mexicutioner is a weak rip off from Manny Paquiao, who made his name beating up latin fighters. It fits him better.
I used to call Johnny Damon “Unfrozen Caveman Outfielder”, but that never got as much steam as plain ol’ “Caveman”. Which is a shame. Also, Randy “The Big Unit” Johnson gets double credit, as both his nickname and real name could easily belong to porn stars.
Other favs include “The Yankee Clipper”, a whole passel of “Babe” Ruth’s silly nicknames, and of course… George “High Pockets” Kelly.
Bossman Junior.
I was under the impression that was his given name.
E5 for Edwin Encarnacion, thanks Cinci fans!
I’m partial to Edwin Scissorhands, though E5 is admittedly a whole lot easier to type.
Best nickname around is Big League Choo, IMO.
Big League Choo…first time I’ve heard it. awesomesauce
The Flyin’ Hawaiian.
Dicktorino.
The Dutch Oven may be the funniest nickname I’ve ever heard. On a slightly less than related note, Bill Simmons nicknamed then Milwaukee Bucks’ draft choice Yi JianLian the “Chairman” because there was very little footage of him actually, you know, playing basketball. The official scouting tapes on him had him dribbling and shooting around chairs that were placed on the court. This has to be my favorite all-time sporting nickname just due to the bizarre circumstances leading to it.
I actually like Yi-6 (pronounced like E-6), another Simmons-dubbed nickname for Yi.
My favorite that no one has heard of (mostly because a buddy came up with it and only myself and two friends kick it back and forth): Carlos Gonzalez, also known by the boring and uninventive CarGo, has since been nicknamed Shorts.
CarGo Shorts, or just Shorts, which has the ring of an oldschool curmudgeon-loved nickname, right? It helps that he’s been Dirty McNasty this season.
While he was with the Twins, some of my friends and I also called Carlos Gomez “CarGo.” Some were slightly more creative and changed it to “GoGo,” due to his ridiculous speed.
He was dubbed “Patrol Craft” for a long time at the Athletics Nation blog, as a consequence of a particularly ill-translated “leak” by a Venezuelan news article which (wrongly) predicted that the “Marabino patrol craft” would begin the year in the “central garden” for the A’s…
Don’t forget The Bird.
Dennys Reyes, “The Big Sweat.”
The Mad Hungarian
My favorite forgotten nickname of all time is Darrell ‘Kool FM’ Akerfelds, who had a 94.5 ERA one spring for the A’s. I don’t think it actually stuck, or maybe it was just Akerfelds that didn’t.
It’s impossible to beat “Ugly” Johnny Dickshot.
Dickshot is enough in itself
Michael “THE CONDOR” Saunders
I like The Toddfather for Todd Helton, Roy ‘Doc’ Halladay, Fred ‘The Crime Dog’ McGriff and of course the Wizard for Ozzie Smith. I was surprised to find out that one of the all time great nicknames ‘The Iron Horse’ wasn’t really used for Lou Gehrig his teammates used the more ubiquitous ‘Biscuit Pants’
Vlad the Impaler
…and Ryan “The Riot” Theriot
what about…
CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCH
for Carlos Ruiz of course.
And Antonio Alfonseca
el pulpo/the octopus.
A newly popular one this year, here in Boston, has been Dustin “Laser Show” Pedroia.
Also, one of the Red Sox’s top prospects, Ryan Westmoreland, already received his perfect nickname courtesy of the blogosphere: Manifest Destiny.
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Minus one? Hell, that may be one of the most clever nicknames around.
Agreed, I approve of Manifest Destiny.
Not sure whether you’re -1ing me about the historical connotations or an assumption you’re making about what Sox fans think of Westmoreland’s likely impact (although, to be fair, we expect great things from him). But that’s not why he’s Manifest Destiny.
Hint: It’s about the pun.
Travis Snider has been christened as Moonraker by the Jays blogosphere.
Or, The Great Pasty White Hope.
Adam Jones is Dr. Jones (which, I think, is an Indiana Jones reference)
Jeremy Guthrie is just plain Guts
Kevin Millwood is The Mentor (because every Baltimore Sun article talks about how he mentors the young Orioles pitchers)
Also, check out this article: http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2010/5/14/1471888/nicknames-from-around-the-game
I would agree that the nicknames given to players has diminished, if not in numbers, but also in creativity. However, in this age, we are blessed with the Internet, and nicknames on message boards are fairly prolific. Players can have multiple nicknames, depending on their performance that particular game, so it’s no wonder that perhaps the players may not want some particular names to stick
A couple of others off the top of my head – mostly off message boards
Placido “Beldar” Polanco
Jamie “Gas Can” Walker
“Officer” Ron Karkovice
Edgar “Rent-a-Wreck” Renteria
John “E-I-E-I-O” McDonald
Will “LeDismal” Ledezma
Rich Garces: “El Guapo”
I always liked Matsui’s nickname Godzilla. It’s not only catchy but it’s a carry over from his Nippon days if I’m not mistaken.
He’s alittle more Mothra these days.
The Hammer of God, 42 (though he takes it from an older player, but wears it extremely well), and The Sandman.
‘Nough said.
I don’t know why it’s my all-time favorite. It’s not that original. I don’t think it’s because it’s almost like porno, but I just love Jimmie “Double X” Foxx……
Love the Crime Dog, of course…..Is it too easy and inappropriate to call him Casey “Tits” McGehee…….Bob Uecker always said that Chad Fox had an electric slider back in the day. My friends and I thought it would be great if his warm-up music was the Electric Slide. So we sort of called him “Electric”….What about Jim “Hit One” Thome?…….OK, I’m done….
I have heard “Gentleman Jim” used a few times. I think it is because he is so well liked by players and fans.
I bet there aren’t any up and coming players that want Mordecai Brown’s nickname dusted off for them.
IIRC, didn’t Lastings Milledge once give two fingers to the crowd? That would be a great nickname for him :D.
What, no mention of my all time favorite pre-1900 pitcher Charles Frederick Koenig? You may know him by his totally awesome nickname, Silver King.
Also, I should mention one of my more favorite nicknames of the current age, Alexei “The Cuban Missile” Ramirez.
Alexei, like many others, got his nickname from polarizing broadcaster Hawk Harrelson. Here’s a copypasta’d bit from wackypedia:
Harrelson coined many nicknames for popular Sox players, including “Black Jack” McDowell, Carlos “El Caballo” Lee, Lance “One Dog” Johnson, Frank “The Big Hurt” Thomas, Craig “Little Hurt” Grebeck, “The Deacon” Warren Newson, “Big Bad” Bobby Jenks, “The Silent Assassin” Javier Vazquez, Herbert “the Milkman” Perry, Jake “The Jake-Meister” Peavy, Dayan “The Tank” Viciedo, and Magglio “Maggs” Ordóñez, along with fan favorite “Big Dick” Richard Dotson. During a broadcast, Harrelson attempted to nickname partner Darrin Jackson “The Squirrel” because of the quantity of peanuts his partner ate, to which Jackson replied, “No.” He calls his current partner Steve Stone “Stone Pony.” The Stone Pony is one of the world’s most popular music venues, but the term’s connection to Steve Stone is unclear.
Some of those are obviously not as good as others (Jake-Meister? Really, Hawk?) but it seems like Hawk himself (so named for that big beak of his) deserves a mention.
Also he has taken to comparing John Danks to a mongoose lately. I’m not sure I see the similarity, but it is kind of a cool sounding name.
As a non-Sox fan, Hawk is nigh-unbearable. Plus, everyone knows that The Silent Assassin is Willie Boomquist.
Good job on reminding us of The Tank.
I sooooo want Michael Saunders to make it for the mariners so I can start calling him “Colonel”!
Yeah, he’s already got a better nickname than that.
Ichiro, I heard goes by Ichi but I like Zatoichiro in hommage to Zatoichi, Blind Swordsman. In the Zatoichi series, Zatoichi also goes by Ichi.
Ichi means “one” in Japanese.
If it hasn’t been mentioned already, Matt Kemp is known in and around the Dodger blogosphere as The Bison. I always felt it was a good one.
It’s not so bad. The real problem, I think we can all agree, is the I-Rod/A-Rod/F-Rod, etc. phenomenon. Though F-Lop is pretty amusing.
Vlad the Impaler is probably my current favorite.
Kung-Fu Panda
Doc Halladay
The Flyin’ Hawaiian
Big Papi
Godzilla
The Mexicuitioner
Pat the Bat
Death to Flying Things
Big Donkey
Phat Albert/Prince Albert
King Felix
Pronk
Mo/Sandman
All solid.
I like the “Chairman Mauer” idea.
El Guapo is definitely the best modern-day nickname.
Jays have a few odd ones;
RR Cool J
North of Steeles
Minister of Defence
Jedi
Moonraker
Scrabble
Pope
Boo!
etc…
And Joey Bats of course
The giants this year even have a nickname for their defense as a whole given to them by pat the bat: the wild kingdom defense. A panda at 3rd, a gazelle in center (tores), and 2 water buffalo in the corners (burrell and huff)
Despite all these nicknames, very few of these players have legally changed their names to incorporate their nickname, i.e. John Bonser to Boof Bonser and (football) Chad Johnson to Chad Ochocinco.
Freddy Garcia is often referred to as “Sweaty Freddy” by many of us Sox fans…for obvious reasons. It’s about the only thing I find enjoyable about him.
enjoyable?
Please use Pudge instead of I-Rod. Also, lets not leave the Big Hurt (Frank Thomas) out. At this time we should aslo recognized Roger “The Rocket” Clemens. In addition to other things, he was one of the most dominating pitchers over a 20 year span that has ever pitched.
But most of all lets not leave out the guys who are SO good, that they are know by their first names. Johan, Ichiro, Pedro. Their is clearly something special when their first name without deviation is enough to distinguish them from EVERYONE else.
Also, the shortest of all nicknames… Mo (Mariano Rivera). There is something to that simplicity.
Also, wasnt Greg Maddox “The Professor” and wasnt Sean Casey “The Mayor”.
Maddux was The Professor to some, but Bobby Cox only called him one thing: Mad Dog.
Great name.
Also Hanley (Ramirez of course) as another first name only player.
And Manny.
i know this is harping on the “recalling old nicknames” idea, but i like that since joey votto is canadian everyone at redreporter has been calling him the “say eh kid”
jay “boss” bruce
edinson volquez is “the wagon”
johnnie b. (dusty) baker calls his catcher ramon hernandez “clutch man monie”
and thats all i got from the reds side.
How could we forget Tony Plush?
Brett Gardner: GGBG (Gritty, Gutty Brett Gardner)
Melky Cabrera: The Melkman Delivers
Curtis Granderson: Granderslam, Grand Central
Jeff Franceour: Frenchy
Joey Votto: Votto-matic
CC Sabathia: Cheeseburger Cheeseburger
Jorge Posada: Hip-Hip Jorge
Angel Pagan: The Crazy Horse or Religious Oxymoron
Does anyone else call the newest Tigers rookie “Ving” Rhymes? I think I’m the only one.
No, because the only acceptable nickname for Will Rhymes is “Busta.”
Best of them all Joey Bats
How about Bill “Spaceman” Lee. Could not come up with a better name for him
Classic, and so fitting…
Can’t believe nobody has mentioned Super Meek. Watched the end of a Pirates game a few days ago; whoever came up with that deserves a cookie or a punch in the face, I can’t figure it out.
It may be derivative and I can’t take credit for it, but Votto as the “Say Eh” kid is brilliant.
Lou Pinella tried to give Kosuke Fukudome the nickname “The Fook”, but nobody was willing to use it.
:D
/Hawk Harrelson has given a lot of players their nicknames – The Big Hurt, El Caballo, One Dog, the Cuban Missile, Tank, etc.
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Eric “the Red” Davis
John “Way Back” Wasdin
Just a couple of my favorites not mentioned so far.
I agree that the smashed-name nickname (ARod, CarGo) is a lame way to go. But so is the pun on a name that has no relation to player.
Vlad the Impaler (though I’m not a fan of the name) works because Vlad, in fact, impales, metaphorically.
Kung Fu Panda works because his body and personality match up with the name.
Chairman Mauer? Clever, yes…but pointless. He’s a Midwestern golden boy, what does that have to do with Mao? It just doesn’t make sense. Now, if he were an overpowering clubhouse presence it might work.
Phat Albert? Prince Albert? please, let’s make The Machine stick.
Also, let’s make Trickey Dickey happen. Great nickname there.
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Nitram Odarp for Martin Prado because of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZWjdDTjtXw
Let’s be honest–the best current nickname goes to one of the most annoying players: Blastings Thrilledge.
As others have mentioned, Chooch is also brilliant, and I love Mex for Keith Hernandez. One I haven’t seen mentioned: The Big Puma, for Lance Berkman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snm7VnR1xRw&feature=related