North San Antonio News

Let’s talk sports nicknames

To add color and electricity to the game, whether it is baseball, basketball, football or hockey, an athlete often is attached to a nickname that seems to transcend the sport and the athletes themselves.

Now, some names have a ring to them … Yankee public address announcer Bob Sheppard saying “Numbah seven, Mickey Mantle, numbah seven” had an ethereal quality.  Many ballplayers didn’t need nicknames, but many players have earned ones that stand the test of time.

Now, I won’t include ESPN host Chris Berman’s nicks that were forced in for entertainment purposes. Don’t get me wrong. I have met Chris several times and he is a good guy and a funny man. And Bert “Be Home” Blyleven and Joaquin “The Dog” Andujar are funny, but they aren’t the earned-on-the-field nicknames that identify a player.

Let’s talk “earned” nicknames. Two of my favorites are “Death to Flying Things” given to Jack Chapman and Bob Ferguson, who played in the 1870s, and Franklin Gutierrez, who played from 2005-2017. They deserved the nick for hauling down anything hit in their vicinity.

Bris Lord was “The Human Eyeball” and played from 1905-1913. He was supposed to have great eyesight, but his stats don’t bear that out.

So let’s go to the extreme, Nicklas Lidstrom was so well thought of for his character and as a Hall of Fame defenseman for the Detroit Red Wings from 1987-2012, that he was called, “The Perfect Human.” What else is there to say?

Great players get great names … Red Sox Hall of Famer Ted Williams was “The Splendid Splinter” and “Teddy Ballgame.” But Cardinal Pepper Martin, who already had a nickname, was also known as “Wild Horse of the Osage” because of his daring, aggressive base-running abilities. 

More to the point, another Cardinal, Stan Musial was simply known as “Stan the Man.” Willie Mays was “The Say Hey Kid,” and Mickey Mantle was “The Mick,” but “The Commerce Comet” never stuck.

Football legend Red Grange was “The Galloping Ghost.” While in college for Illinois, his blinding speed and elusive running style made him virtually un-tackleable. But Jimmy Brown, one of the greatest runners in NFL history, had no nickname to speak of.

There are way too many great nicks to mention in one column, so we will do this again down the road … but here are a few more.

In boxing, Muhammad Ali was known as “The Louisville Lip,” but he was also known simply as “The Greatest.” The original “Sugar” was “Sugar Ray” Robinson, and we had “Smokin’ Joe” Frazier, Thomas “The Hit Man” Hearns, “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini and Chuck Wepner, “The Bayonne Bleeder.”

In golf, “Slammin’” Sammy Snead, “Tiger” Woods and “Babe” Didrickson Zaharias were greats with great names.

In football there were Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch, “Broadway Joe” Namath, “Joe Cool” Montana, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, William “The Refrigerator” Perry, “Mean Joe” Greene, and Dick “Night Train” Lane.”

In basketball, if Jerry West was “Zeke from Cabin Creek,” then Larry Bird was “The hick from French Lick.” And we had “Magic” Johnson “Pistol Pete” Maravich, and Karl “The Mailman” Malone.

In the NHL, Gordie Howe was “Mr. Hockey,” Dominick Hasek was “The Dominator,” and we had “Super Mario” Lemieux. Maurice Richard was “The Rocket,” and his brother Henri was “Pocket Rocket.” Wayne Gretzky was “The Great One.”

The king of them all, the athlete most deserving of nicknames as one who transcended the sport, was the man with the most nicks. George Herman Ruth … “The Babe.” He was “The Sultan of Swat,” for his home run-hitting prowess. 

He was also known as “The Great Bambino,” “The Colossus of Clout,” “The Behemoth of Bust,” “The Big Bam,” “The Mauling Mastodon,” “The Sachem of Slug,” “The Wizard of Whack,” “The Maharajah of Mash” and as many as 20 more. Now there goes the poster child of nicknames.

This is the tip of the iceberg. Let’s get together again and share more great nicks and those who hated their nicknames.

See you next time.