The Names of the Game (Part 1)

Mark "The Bird" Fidrych rocked in the late 70's! 

Very recently on the APBA Baseball Group (Facebook), a topic of nicknames was brought up by Kenneth Heard (of the wonderful blog "Love, Life and APBA Baseball") during a discussion, in which one of APBA's faithful Tom Tracey started a really interesting topic on nicknames (or ridiculous names in general) that have ever graced our APBA cards, or in Baseball history.

It got me thinking about the god awful nicknames, the funny ones, the sad (yet hilarious) APBA-made nicknames through the years. I've seen this discussion brought up on the The APBA Blog as well, it's one of the fun factors of our game, you need to have a nickname! I've been meaning to get to this topic eventually, and their discussions have inspired me to look up the whackiness of the topic.

First off, in the early days we had a lot of nicknames such as Dummy, Lefty, Chief, Red, Whitey & Chick. Some of these names are just downright wrong, the nickname "Dummy" was usually used for a guy who was either completely deaf or partially deaf -- I'm glad to see we have progressed as a society as we no longer use the word "Dummy" for deaf people (which I have a cousin who's deaf, and my wife is partially deaf... since she no longer has a right ear drum) -- if we didn't progress we would have seen people refer to Curtis Pride (Expos) as Dummy Pride, and that would have also just sounded ridiculous. "Lefty" was obviously for anyone who pitched left (thank god, Righty didn't catch on), "Chief" was unfortunately (a bit distasteful) for anyone with Native American in their background, "Red" was for all the gingers of the baseball world, "Whitey" for all the white-haired fellas or anyone who happened to have the word White in their last name. The "Chick" one, threw me -- for example we have Chick Gandil (one of the eight players banned from the game during the "Black Sox" scandal), who doesn't look anything like a chick, or small like a chick, or whatever they used the name Chick for.... the guy's nickname should have been "Scary" or something on those lines, he looked pretty shady!

The nickname "Rube" as in Rube Waddell & Rube Marquard, were actually derivative from the Negro Leagues, a shout-out of sorts to Rube Foster (a good pitcher & did better work for the organizational factor in Negro League Baseball).

Then there are names like Rogers Hornsby (usually pronounced "Rajah" Hornsby), which his first name was actually his mother's maiden name.

Throughout this post, I will list tons of interesting names & nicknames, some may be in categories, some may not... but I hope you enjoy this very much.

"Laughing Larry" Doyle.

• Charles Grimm (29' Cubs) - "Jolly Cholly" - Not sure if they just thought his last name sounded like doom, so lets make it the complete opposite?

• "Bad Bill" Dahlen (04' Giants)
• Dummy Taylor (04' Giants)
• Arthur "Circus Solly" Hofman (06' Cubs)

• The baseball's version of the Odd Couple? Two members of the 1912 Giants: "Laughing Larry" Doyle & "Silent George" Burns.

• "Jumping Joe" Dugan (27' Yankees)

• Erv "Four Sack" Dusak (42' Cardinals) - During the 42' season, he had no HR's ("Four Sackers") -- he would go on to hit 24 during 1,034 lifetime at-bats, so he averaged roughly 12 HR's during a full season. I'm sorry, but that's not enough to earn a nickname, sounds like someone just has a knack for wanting to make things rhyme.

• Clift Heathcoate (29' Cubs) - "Rubberhead"

• Ed Lopat (53' Yankees) - "Steady Eddie"; which brings me to Eddie Murray's real-life nickname and not the god-awful APBA nickname of "Tired", what does that even mean?

SLASHER FILM Nicknames?

• Hack Wilson (29' Cubs) - Of course we know of Hall of Famer Hack Wilson, I knew he was built like a tank, but had no idea he was that short! Only 5'6", at 190 lbs -- this is a guy who knocked in 191 RBI during the 1930 Season.

• Enos Slaughter (42' Cardinals & HOF)
• Randy Myers (90' Reds) - "Psycho"
• "Wild Bill" Donovan (Tigers)

• Creepy Crespi (42' Cardinals) - I wonder how he ever got this nickname? Check out his Profile Pic on Baseball Reference.com! I can see that got sitting out some woman's window, behind the bushes, eating donuts (probably Krispy Kremes) -- Creepy Crespi and his Krispy Kremes!
• Joe Benz (17' White Sox) - "Butcher Boy"

*** Back to the list....

• Smoky Burgess (60' Pirates)
• Bobo Milliken (53' Dodgers)
• Guy Bush (29' Cubs) -- with one of my favorites, "The Mississippi Mudcat".
• Preacher Roe (53' Dodgers)
• School Boy Rowe (Tigers)
• Bill Mizell (60' Pirates) - "Vinegar Bend"
• "Gentleman Dave" Malarcher (Negro League star)
• Ollie "Downtown" Brown (Padres)
• (Clarence) Dazzy Vance (Dodgers' Hall of Famer)
• Carl Furillo (53' Dodgers) - "Skoonj", not sure what a skoonj is? but okay!
• Wally Joyner (Angels) - "Wally World" or just another nickname for Wal-Mart.

• Mitch Williams (93' Phillies) - Appropriately nicknamed "The Wild Thing", because no one knew where that pitch was going! Plus I got to say, I enjoy Mitch on the MLB Network, but I always have found it funny watching him talk about one of today's pitchers and what they have to do, to fix their mechanics -- to me it was the equivalent of watching Sean Salisbury (former ESPN analyst on NFL Live) breaking down Pro Bowl quarterbacks in the NFL -- really Sean? If you were that great why were you a lifetime backup QB with a lousy QB rating!

HEY, there NANCY Boy!!

• Baby Doll Jacobson (Browns)
• Kim Batiste (93' Phillies)
• Julie Wera (27' Yankees)

• Christy Mathewson (HOF, N.Y. Giants), whose real-life name was Christopher; had two great nicknames in "The Big Six" (being 6 ft tall) and "The Christian Gentleman".
• Judy Johnson (HOF & Negro League star)
• Larry & Norm Sherry (brothers on the 62' Dodgers)
• Chick Gandil ("Black Sox")
• Chick Tolson (29' Cubs)
• Chick Fullis (34' Cardinals)
• Jackie Hernandez (Pirates)
• Nellie Briles (71' Pirates)
• Tillie Shafer (12' Giants)
• Leslie "Major" Mann (14' Braves), was the nickname a sort of way of saying "Yeah?... My name is Leslie, but let me tell you I AM ALL MAN!"

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

• Rabbit Maranville (14' Braves & HOF)
• Moose McCormick (12' Giants)
• Mule Haas (31' Athletics)
• Possum Whitted (14' Braves)
• John Schulte (29' Cubs) - "Eagle Eye" (appears to be a APBA nickname), which inspired them to give the next guy...
• Myles Thomas (27' Yankees) - "Duck Eye"
• Bill Virdon (60' Pirates) - "Quail"
• Harvey Haddix (Pirates) - "Kitten"
• Greg Maddux (Braves) - "Mad Dog"
• Andres Galarraga (98' Braves) & Johnny Mize (Cardinals) - "Big Cat"
• Birdie Lynn (17' White Sox)
• Goose Goslin (HOF, Senators & Tigers)
• Charles Hall (12' Red Sox) - "Sea Lion"
• "Turkey Mike" Donlin (N.Y. Giants)
• Jim "Catfish" Hunter (HOF, A's & Yankees)
• George "Catfish" Metkovich (46' Red Sox)
• Mark "The Bird" Fidrych (Tigers)

*** Back to the list...

• Bill "Goober" Zuber (46' Red Sox)
• Jimmie McDonald (53' Yankees) - "Hot Rod"
• Nemo Leibold (17' White Sox & 25' Senators)
• Happy Felsch ("Black Sox" scandal)
• "Dauntless Dave" Danforth (17' White Sox) - now that's a mouthful!
• Muddy Ruel (25' Senators)
• Curly Ogden (25' Senators)
• Noble "Win" Ballou (25' Senators)
• Ray Schalk (17' White Sox, HOF, who also helped take down "Black Sox" players) - nickname of "Cracker", which is funny, because he was lily white & from cornbread Illinois!

• Touchy Feely: George Selkirk (27' Yankees) - "Twinkletoes", Pinky Higgins (46' Red Sox) & Footsie Blair (29' Cubs).

• Two Greatest Lefties: Lefty Gomez (Yankees HOF) & Lefty Grove (A's HOF).

• Where's Murtaugh?! Riggs Stephenson (29' Cubs) & Lew Riggs (40' Reds) -- let me see, if I can find him, ahhh helll... "I'm getting too old for this s&@t!" (Clueless? Think Lethal Weapon)

OH... APBA!

Dan Miceli: The "Godfather"? 

• Gene Clines (71' Pirates) - "Road Runner"
• Victor Davalillo (71' Pirates) - "Mighty Mouse"
• Freddie Patek (Royals) - "R2-D2"

• Garry Maddox (77' Phillies) - real life: "Secretary of Defense", I like that much better than his APBA "Buggy Whip" nickname.

• Dan Miceli (98' Padres) - "The Godfather"; seriously? yes, he has an Italian name & yes, he's from New Jersey. I can see it now (with his lifetime 4.48 ERA), "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse... a free home run" -- Oh, have another! Another!

There is so many that I jotted down, that I have decided to do another segment... for example I was just digging through my complete set of 1984 Topps Baseball Cards, and saw a name that made me laugh...

Biff Pocoroba

Hahaha... with a name like that, how can you not succeed?!