There are not enough great nicknames anymore. Especially in baseball. Oh yes, we have Coco Crisp but back in the "good old" days the sport was filled was players with colorful ridiculous nicknames. So, with pitchers and catchers reporting later this month, I thought this would be a good time to salute some of the greatest names in the game. These are all real. You can look 'em up.
Bow Wow Arft
Spitz Applegate
Rattlesnake Baker
Desperate Beatty
Jittery Joe Berry
Hill Billy Bildili
Goobers Bratcher
Goober Zuber
Turkeyfoot Brower
Ding-a-Lig Clay
Whoops Creeden
Crunchy Cronin
Ding Croucher
Daffy Dean
Peaceful Valley Deizer
Bullfrog Dietrich
Buttermilk Dowd
Pea Soup Duont
Piccolo Pete Elko
Slippery Ellam
Sleuth Fleming
Suds Fodge
Suds Sutherland
Inch Gleich
Gabber Glenn
Snags Heidrick
Bunny High
Bunny Brief
Bootnose Hofmann
Herky Jerky Horton
Twinkies Host
Highpockets Hunt
Bear Tracks Javery
Whoop-La White
Swamp Baby Wilson
Sweetbreads Bailey
Humpy McElven
Boob McNair
Spinach Melilo
Earache Meyer
Peach Pie O'Connor
Truckhorse Pratt
Shucks Pruett
Raw Meat Rodgers
Horse Belly Sargent
Silk Stocking Schafer
Vinegar Ben Mizell
Blab Schwartz
Twinkletoes Selkirk
Spook Speake
Fish Hook Stout
Razor Ledbetter
Razor Shines
Cuddles Marshall
Beauty McGowen
Cotton Pippen
Pid Purdy
Van Lingle Mungo
Icicle Reeder
Tink Riviere
Lady Baldwi
Skeeter Scalzi
Socks Seibold
Mule Shirley
Urban Shocker
Colonel Bosco Snyder
Inky Strange
Sleeper Sullivan
White Wings Tebeau
Adonis Terry
Cannonball Titcomb
Turkey Tyson
Dixie Upright
Peak-a-Boo Veach
Mysterious Walker
Mother Watson
Mule Watson
Stump Weidman
Podgie Weibe
Icehouse Wilson
Chicken Wolf
Chief Moses Yellowhorse
Zip Zabel
Noodles Zupo
Oyster Burns
...and last but certainly not least:
Pussy Tebeau
Working the video games industry I remember getting the business card of one Mr. Chip Bumgardner. I wonder what his nickname is.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the Dave Frishberg song, "Van Lingle Mungo" - no need for nicknames here, the names alone speak/sing volumes.
ReplyDeleteLet us not forget Pumpsie Green.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHere's a poem by William Wallace made up entirely of baseball players' nicknames:
ReplyDeletehttp://home.earthlink.net/~sscutchen/baseball/Poetry/anthem_baseball_nicknames.htm
There's a list like this in "The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book" (sadly, now out of print) - glad to see you've updated it.
ReplyDeleteOther than Coco Crisp, Big Papi and The Big Hurt, Capt. Chaos and El Caballo from the White Sox , I can't think of any others from the past 20 years.
ReplyDeleteAnd the last three probably came from Hawk Harrelson, who was a teammate of Catfish Hunter.
One of my favorites comes from football. The Bears players' nickname for William Perry was "Biscuit" because he seemed to be a biscuit short of 350.
Lest we not forget Bob "Death to Flying Things" Ferguson
ReplyDelete"That's MR. Boob McNair, and you'll address me as such."
ReplyDeleteHow could you leave off Cubs Hall-of-Famer, Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown, aka Three-Finger Brown?
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, "Shake n Bake" McBride was my favorite player because of his nickname. He also finishes a close second to Oscar Gamble in "Best MLB Afro".
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bendpress.com/newnewnows/baseball/oscar_gamble.jpg
The last entry puts an entirely different spin on "Tebeau-ing".
ReplyDeleteAlso, according to this site,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Pussy_Tebeau
Charles Tebeau was the player that you are referring to. The one pictured here is Oliver Tebeau, who, in contrast, had the rather masculine nickname of "Patsy".
And the Cleveland Indians, Fausto "INSERT REAL NAME HERE" Carmona.
ReplyDeleteSome baseball nicknames came from that wonderful subtle humor you often find in men's locker rooms -
ReplyDeleteAt least 8 players were known as "Dummy" As far as I know only Dummy Hoy was actually deaf...
All the players known as "Specs" wore glasses, and most of them known as "Stretch" were rather tall. Or at least Willie McCovey was...
Hundreds of players have been known as Lefty - including Lefty Grove and Steve Carlton - I'm betting all were left handed...
And it took a decade for Richie Allen to be known as Dick, although we knew he always was...
The pride of Chestertown, Maryland: Bill "Swish" Nicholson! (Great statue of him there)
ReplyDeleteHow about Stubby Clapp? Played for the Cardinals as recently as 2001. He was a little spark plug for a few games that summer, got the love of the fans, even though his name sounds like a bad case of VD
ReplyDeleteBoof Bonser
ReplyDeleteYou have Daffy Dean but not Dizzy (or did I miss it?). When I first watched ESPN and Chris "Keep the Home Fires" Berman was doing the baseball scores, his clever nicknames kept me highly amused. Tom "Leave It To" Seaver, Bert "Be Home" Blylevin, and the various guys named Cruz.
ReplyDeleteI recall William "The Refrigerator" Perry, too. I guess he was big enough for two nicknames.
How could you mention Daffy Dean and not his more famous brother Dizzy? I have very fond memories of Dizzy Dean.
ReplyDeleteRay
You forgot Coot Veal, infielder for the expansion 1961 Senators.
ReplyDeleteand don't forget "Who's" on first.
ReplyDeleteHow could you forget Rusty Kuntz??? The greatest name in all of baseball...
ReplyDelete"Van Lingle Mungo" was his real name, not a nickname. Also, let's not forget Bonehead Merkle.
ReplyDelete"Humpy McElven"
ReplyDeleteI stopped usng that nickname years ago.
Vinegar BEND Mizell, which sounds cooler than Vinegar Ben, but loses points for being the name of his hometown.
ReplyDelete"Other than Coco Crisp, Big Papi and The Big Hurt, Capt. Chaos and El Caballo from the White Sox , I can't think of any others from the past 20 years."
ReplyDeleteGoes back a bit more than 20 years, but there's also Bill Spaceman Lee. And I don't know if it qualifies as a knickname since his own parents saddled him with it, but I get a kick out of Milton Bradley.
Phillip B: Yeah, my grandpa and his Navy buddies were quite fond of that "subtle," literal-minded nicknaming. The short guy was "Shorty," the one-eyed guy was "One Eye," and the guy with the crooked arm was (my favorite) "Crooked Arm."
ReplyDeleteIn the last 20 years we have had:
ReplyDeleteDavid Wells-Boomer
Reggie Jackson-Mr.October
Randy Johnson-The Big Unit(make of that what you will and I know someone will)
Ryan Braun-The Hebrew Hammer
Tony Gwynn-Mr Video
Greg Maddux- Mad Dog
and I am sure there are many more.
My brother and I loved staying up late perusing our 1974 Baseball Encyclopedia looking at the weird names. One of our favorites: The Only Nolan.
ReplyDeleteI attribute the decline of the Mariners to the practice of just adding a "y" to part of every players name to form a nickname. I wonder if Chone Figgins would be an all-star if he was called Bow Wow instead of Figgy.
ReplyDeleteA few years back I had high hopes for a young Padre with the handle: Stubby Clapp
ReplyDeleteIt was "Vinegar Bend" Mizell - because he was born in Vinegar Bend, AL.
ReplyDeleteThe old Raiders had a TON of great nicknames:
ReplyDeleteSnake
Tooz
Mad Bomber
Blinky
The Assassin
Lester The Molester
Ghost (as in 'Ghost to the Post'
Mad Stork
Old Mother Hubbard
Hell, even the COACH had a great nick: Big Red
Pussy Tebeau: Baseball legend & rejected Bond Girl.
ReplyDeletePhillip B. - Don't forget the several guys named "Rube", too. At least three of them are in the Hall of Fame - Albert Bishop "Rube" Foster (of Calvert, TX), Richard William "Rube" Marquardt (from Cleveland, OH (I guess when you play for the Giants, everyone not from NY is a Rube), and George Edward "Rube" Waddell.
ReplyDeleteCap'n Bob - Berman's shtick has gotten tired, mostly because he evidently hasn't seen a new movie or heard a new song since Bob Seger had dark hair (and if I have to hear his shitty John Facenda impersonation one more time...), but back in the early 90s I liked his nicknames so much I used to write a list of the best ones. My favorites were always Scott "I Want to Take You On a" Secules, Carlos "One If By Land, Two If By Sea, Three if" Baerga, and Jamey "If Lovin' You Is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be" Wright.
http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/1/17/2696559/the-baseball-player-name-hall-of-fame-the-class-of-2012
ReplyDeleteLately there's been a photo being passed around of soon-to-be Mets infielder Chin-lung Hu, standing on first base.
ReplyDeleteBow Wow does resemble a basset hound.
ReplyDeleteIf you're ever broadcasting a throwback game, you should give all the players names from this list. Particulary Turkeyfoot, Sweetbreads, and Pussy. Mmmm...
ReplyDelete...sweetbreads.
I like that phrase "pitchers and catchers reporting later this month". We can finally get back to a real game. You can have your "big game" this Sunday (I don't call it it's real name because I haven't paid multi millions to overpaid players and owners). Give me the crack of the bat and the slap of cowhide (or whatever they use now) in leather. Can't wait for the Cardinals to try and defend their world championship.
ReplyDeleteKen - you missed Choo Choo Coleman, who was recently featured in an article in the NY Times... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/sports/baseball/mets-choo-choo-coleman-50-years-later.html
ReplyDeleteHope you are enjoying your trip.
Dan H. (Yes, that one).