Baseball’s Best Players Often Had Best Nicknames

Baseball’s Best Players Often Had Best Nicknames

By Dan Schlossberg

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NOTE: This article was published by the IBWAA on May 10, 2025 and is used with permission.

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Seeing the name Buzz Capra in Paul Semendinger’s article on league leaders, I started thinking about memorable baseball nicknames — at least those we could print.

Lee William Capra, given his nickname by a neighbor in suburban Chicago, was not a memorable player, except perhaps to Braves fans who remembered his remarkable and unexpected contributions to that club’s 1974 pitching staff.

Plenty of other Braves with nicknames were, however.

How about Hall of Famers Hammerin’ Hank Aaron, Larry (Chipper) Jones, and Phil (Knucksie) Niekro, for example?

Cooperstown is filled with personalities known by nicknames.

George Herman (Babe) Ruth had many, including The Bambino, The Sultan of Swat, and Jidge, a derivation of his actual first name.

Three other Hall of Famers named George at birth were George Thomas Seaver, the pitcher; George (Sparky) Anderson, the manager; and George (Mule) Haas, fleet center fielder for the old Philadelphia Athletics. Manager Jimmie Dykes referred to Haas as “The Donkey” or “Donk,” while the first Frank Thomas (not the Hall of Famer) was called Dnkey because of his big ears.

Mickey Mantle’s real first name was Mickey but the man he was named after — Mickey Cochrane — was originally named Gordon Stanley Cochrane.

Lefty Grove’s given name was Robert, while Lefty Gomez was Vernon Lewis Gomez.

Seaver was both Tom Terrific and “The Franchise.”

Plenty of players were named after animals.

Mark (the Bird) Fidrych, whose career fizzled in a flash, never pitched to Clarence (Choo-Choo) Coleman, who had a lifetime batting average of .197 and a fielding average not much higher than that.

Lou Gehrig was “The Iron Horse,” Harry Danning was “The Horse,” and Charles Radbourn became “Old Hoss” after he won a record 59 games in a season, proving his willingness to work.

Jimmie Foxx was not only “Double-X” but “The Beast.” That nickname would have also worked for the later Charlie “King Kong” Keller and Dave “Kong” Kingman.

Although Ted Williams was dubbed “The Splendid Splinter” because of his svelte but powerful physique, that nickname was too long to fit into headlines. So the Boston papers solved the problem but referring to him simply as “The Kid” (later adopted by Gary Carter).

Joe DiMaggio was “the Yankee Clipper” and Tris Speaker was “The Grey Eagle” but those names were not as easy to shorten as Edwin Snider’s “The Duke of Flatbush.”

Cal Ripken, Jr., who broke Gehrig’s record for consecutive games played, deserved his “Iron Man” title, used decades earlier by a durable New York Giants pitcher who pitched three doubleheaders and won them all in August 1903. Few fans knew “Iron Man” McGinnity’s real name was Joe.

Two other pitchers with notable nicknames were Mike (The Bear) Garcia and Fred (Big Bear) Hutchinson. Then there was hard-throwing closer Dick (The Monster) Radatz.

Baseball has had more than its share of players nicknamed Whitey — Edward Charles Ford and fellow Hall of Famer Dorrel Norman Elbert Herzog, to name two — and quite a few “Reds,” notably Albert (Red) Schoendienst and broadcaster Walter Lanier (Red) Barber.

Goose Goslin, Ducky Medwick, and David (Big Papi) Ortiz also answered to nicknames. Goslin’s real name was Leon Allen Goslin, while Medwick — the last man to win a Triple Crown in the National League — was simply Joe.

Another Goose — the Cooperstown closer surnamed Gossage — was actually Rich by birth and by performance.

And let’s not forget Leroy (Satchel) Paige, who was always schlepping a bag somewhere during his decades-long sojourn in the Negro Leagues.

Players called John Wagner “Honus” because that was the German translation of his given name. Charles Leo (Gabby) Hartnett talked a lot, diminutive Rabbit Maranville (real name Walter) had a nickname dictated by his size (or lack of it).

Almost left out of this article were George (Highpockets) Kelly, Mike (Pinky) Higgins, Willie (Stretch) McCovey, Hazen (KiKi) Cuyler, Derrel (Bud) Harrelson, Ken (Hawk) Harrelson, and Jim (Hippo) Vaughn, who weighed 230 and pitched half of the famed double no-hit game of Mat 2, 1917 against 260-pound Fred Toney, also known as “The Man Mountain from Tennessee.”

Not to mention Charles Arthur (Dazzy) Vance, Jerome Herman (Dizzy) Dean, and Harold (Pee Wee) Reese.

Hall of Famer Jim Palmer answered to “Cakes” because he deliberately ate pancakes the day he pitched. Wilmer (Vinegar Bend) Mizell hailed from that town in Alabama.

But the pitcher with the most authentic nickname was Denton True (Cy) Young, who was dubbed “Cyclone” after smashing a wooden backstop with his fastball.

There was only one Yogi, with Lawrence Peter Berra earning the famous monicker because a teammate thought he resembled an Indian yogi. At least he hit more home runs than Frank (Home Run) Baker, a spray hitter of the Dead Ball Era who somehow connected twice in the 1911 World Series.

Jim (Catfish) Hunter, a later Yankee than Yogi, got his nickname when enterprising Athletics owner Charlie Finley tried to inject more color into the game.

It worked, especially because he also hung the nickname “Blue Moon” on pitcher John Odom and had another pitcher whose actual name was Vida Blue.

And, by the way, the real name of one-time Atlanta catcher Biff Pocoroba was Biff.

As Charles Dillon “Casey” Stengel once said, “You could look it up.”

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HtP Weekend Editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ has been writing baseball for more than 50 years. The author of 43 books, he is a national baseball writer for forbes.com, columnist for Sports Collectors Digest, and contributor to Memories & Dreams, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, and numerous other outlets.