@adbono posted:To your point, which is absolute truth, one of my college teammates was nicknamed “Johnny P” - which seems logical because his first name was John and his last name began with the letter P. But that wasn’t the reason at all. Johnny P could have had quite the career in the porn industry had he been so inclined. Thankfully he wasn’t. But nothing gets by teammates in a locker room either.
Similar with my son's teammate mentioned above, "Girth".
When I played in the Toledo, Ohio - Sunday Mexican League at age 16, the opposing team would chant "Mucha Lena"!!!
My limited Spanish believed they were calling me "wooden" head.
Later in Canada, the Cuban players on the Moose Jaw team said the same words.
Bob
Atticus. HS varsity coach named one of his players Atticus. No idea the backstory. But it caught on😂
Glenn Braggs, who was said to entertain ladies “until the cows came home," was dubbed “Moo-Moo."
I really like "Bobby Barrells" and "The Usher" but "VNG" may be my fav
I saw "Rambo" hit a long, long HR in Pittsburgh and he was my favorite player for a few days
I was "Boomer" I think because of George Scott, and I was a big first baseman
I played with "Blade" and "Thick" who obviously had different body types. "Caveman" was once my best friend.
I played against a guy in college they called "Upper Deck". I asked him why they called him that and he told me "When I get to the show that's where I'm going to hit them"
I played with the following:
Sasquatch (or Squatch): guy had the biggest feet anyone on the team had ever seen. 17 5E I believe.
Dismorph (short for Dismorphic): guy had a lift on one of his shoes because of leg length difference. Couldn't wear spikes but figured it out well enough to be an adequate D3 pitcher. Had only two toes on his left foot but made up some of that deficiency with the six toes he had on his right. Absolutely dead ringer for Tom Selleck in other, more important aspects of his appearance. Most popular teammate with the ladies. Several. None of whom seemed to mind.
Hoghead: Very, Very, Big and appropriately shaped head and facial features. Threw a mean slider but was only 5'6" so didn't get many offers.
Sweet: All style. Beautiful swing, no contact. Probably the most hated guy I played with. Zero self-awareness. Had wicked shades though, and had the jock walk down.
Lover Boy: Guy's last name was Hader.
The Boot: Pitcher with an ankle issue so he always wore a Red Wing lace up boot like this on his left foot. Was very effective because with that boot flying at them batters had trouble picking up the ball.
As always, smoke wins. Are these all true @smokeminside??!! Also, my nephew and brother-in-law are both Sasquatches with my husband wearing a mere 16. 😂
Yes! Happily, they are all for real.
Two more from me….
Last year my son’s upperclass teammates, nicknamed one of the fresh pitchers “Lent” because the coach, whom is a devout Catholic, gave up on him after a couple early season outings…..kinda harsh, but I still chuckle. This nickname just might be a baseball thing.
My sons nickname is Bobes. When 8 or 9, I stumbled across his search history on his ITouch. He looked up “ naked lady bobes”. I proceeded to have a come to Jesus moment with him. Well the story made its way to a family friend who happened to be his bus driver. She started greeting him every morning with “Good morning Bobes”, his fellow students picked up on it and it spread. The name stuck. The best part is very few know the origin of the name.
Lent may be simultaneously the funniest and most brutal nickname I’ve heard.
When my husband was in college, they nicknamed one of the freshman lunchmeat. I thought it was because he was so thin (6’10 and under 200lbs). Turns out it was because one of the sophomores regularly “ate him for lunch” in practice. He transferred.
Lent is GREAT!
Moving now, from the sublime to the ridiculous, maybe fans of the teams these guys played for can confirm these nicknames which I heard from my good friend, the fundamentally creative, but uncannily accurate, baseball historian Gwyn Pêl:
Dustin Pedroia: Microbe
Alex Rodriguez: Crescent (as in wrench, as in tool)
Jose Altuvé: Genome
CC Sabathia: Yeti
Pedroia has had a bunch of nicknames. Never heard Microbe.
He probably made it up. He did mention Laser Show and the Muddy Chicken also.
Genome or gnome? Not trying to be funny. Jocks can make some funny and cruel nicknames
This isn't a complete hijack, but this list are ACTUAL names in the Milb several years ago:
2022NYC, I asked Gwyn that very question because both Genome and Gnome could work for Altuvé and I think Gnome is better anyway. After all, how many people even know what a Genome is? They might think it's short for Geenormous, which would be a crappy nickname for Altuvé, for obvious reasons.
Anyway, Gwyn said Genome was chosen instead of Gnome because whoever came up with it--apparently its creator wishes to remain anonymous, kind of like IAmThatGuy--didn't want Gnome to be confused with Nome (Alaska). I think that's silly and told him so. If they were that worried about confusing people they could have just named Altuvé Quark. Everyone knows what a Quark is.
BTW, when Gwyn was explaining all this to me he went off on a tangent about R.A. Dickey, the former knuckleballer for the Mets (and the Rangers, Mariners, Twins, Blue Jays and Braves). Gwyn said Dickey had several nicknames but his two favorites were H.B. and Bedouin. H.B. stands for Higgs Boson, the subatomic particle that can have a 0 spin rate, like a knuckleball. Bedouin came from the nomadic Arabs, because he played for so many different teams.
BTW (again) there's a good joke about Higgs bosons.
