5.4.07 Nicknames
This entry was posted on 5/3/2007 4:06 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
George Gmelch, a cultural anthropologist at Union College and a former first baseman in the Detroit Tigers organization, was enormously impressed by the quality of questions he got during a thirty-minute session with the Rhodes baseball team when he was on campus last month to speak in the Sports and Society series. The team liked him, too, and more than one player bought Gmelch's wonderful book, Inside Pitch: Life in Professional Baseball.
In a section of Inside Pitch called "What's in a name?" Gmelch writes, "Acquiring a nickname is part of becoming a member of the team."
By that measure, the vast majority of Rhodes players are full members of the team, and in ways that conform to Gmelch's research on modern professional ballplayers. "The most common nicknames come from a player's surname," Gmelch finds--for example, "Ash for Ashford, Chad for Chadwick, Doobie for Duboise."
The same is true at Rhodes--Biz for John Robert Bizzell, Beez for Matt Beesley, Kill for Daniel Killary, Mule for Jeff Mueller, Pipes for Robby Piper, Cat for Chris Catalanotto, Boo-Boo for Andy Boucher, Flanny for Robert Flanagan and, in a style that's become popular since Gmelch did his research in the 1990s, B-Val for Brandon Valentine and D-Hubb for Drew Hubbard. Some first names at Rhodes also lend themselves to nicknames: Gordo for Gordon Chadwick and Kevvo for Kevin McAlpine. PT, for Patrick Tolivar, straddles both categories. Then there's Richard "Buffalo" Hurd, a.k.a. "Hurd man."
"Other nicknames," Gmelch reports, "are based on a prominent personal trait, often relating to appearance." That clearly describes beefy Mason "Meat" Mosby and weight-room denizen Brad "Terminator" Atkins, but what about Daniel Vanaman, sometimes known as "Snake" and sometimes as "Booger"?
Gmelch offers a third category of common nicknames and places himself in it: names "that stem from a player's weakness." In Gmelch's own case, "I-beam" (for his initially clunky fielding at first base) became "Moonbeam" when he was seen visiting a library and reading a book. The only game-generated nickname on the Rhodes team that I know of is more positive in origin: "No Chance Chuck" Simmons, who has been known to declare, "They have no chance" when sent into a game as a closer.
Finally, Gmelch reports on a finding by sociologist James Skipper that the use of colorful nicknames (that is, those not based on someone's given name) in the major leagues peaked in the 1920s. My own research in the Rhodes archive suggests that the 'twenties were also a golden decade of nicknames for the Lynx. Among those on the roster at one time another were "Ooley" Wilson, "Nubbins" Cobb, "Hobby" Therrel, "Scaevola" Stringer, "Nimble Finger" Moore, "Fanny" Thomas, "Squeedunk" Newton, "Darlin'" Baine, "Cotton" Thomas, "Shorty" Craven, "Deacon" Buchanan, "Brick" Viers, "Lefty" Garrott, and "Snookums" Hightower.
Boys, we've got some work to do.
P.S. As promised, the Rhodes home page is featuring a story about seriousplaythebook.com this week. You can find it at www.rhodes.edu under "News."
In a section of Inside Pitch called "What's in a name?" Gmelch writes, "Acquiring a nickname is part of becoming a member of the team."
By that measure, the vast majority of Rhodes players are full members of the team, and in ways that conform to Gmelch's research on modern professional ballplayers. "The most common nicknames come from a player's surname," Gmelch finds--for example, "Ash for Ashford, Chad for Chadwick, Doobie for Duboise."
The same is true at Rhodes--Biz for John Robert Bizzell, Beez for Matt Beesley, Kill for Daniel Killary, Mule for Jeff Mueller, Pipes for Robby Piper, Cat for Chris Catalanotto, Boo-Boo for Andy Boucher, Flanny for Robert Flanagan and, in a style that's become popular since Gmelch did his research in the 1990s, B-Val for Brandon Valentine and D-Hubb for Drew Hubbard. Some first names at Rhodes also lend themselves to nicknames: Gordo for Gordon Chadwick and Kevvo for Kevin McAlpine. PT, for Patrick Tolivar, straddles both categories. Then there's Richard "Buffalo" Hurd, a.k.a. "Hurd man."
"Other nicknames," Gmelch reports, "are based on a prominent personal trait, often relating to appearance." That clearly describes beefy Mason "Meat" Mosby and weight-room denizen Brad "Terminator" Atkins, but what about Daniel Vanaman, sometimes known as "Snake" and sometimes as "Booger"?
Gmelch offers a third category of common nicknames and places himself in it: names "that stem from a player's weakness." In Gmelch's own case, "I-beam" (for his initially clunky fielding at first base) became "Moonbeam" when he was seen visiting a library and reading a book. The only game-generated nickname on the Rhodes team that I know of is more positive in origin: "No Chance Chuck" Simmons, who has been known to declare, "They have no chance" when sent into a game as a closer.
Finally, Gmelch reports on a finding by sociologist James Skipper that the use of colorful nicknames (that is, those not based on someone's given name) in the major leagues peaked in the 1920s. My own research in the Rhodes archive suggests that the 'twenties were also a golden decade of nicknames for the Lynx. Among those on the roster at one time another were "Ooley" Wilson, "Nubbins" Cobb, "Hobby" Therrel, "Scaevola" Stringer, "Nimble Finger" Moore, "Fanny" Thomas, "Squeedunk" Newton, "Darlin'" Baine, "Cotton" Thomas, "Shorty" Craven, "Deacon" Buchanan, "Brick" Viers, "Lefty" Garrott, and "Snookums" Hightower.
Boys, we've got some work to do.
P.S. As promised, the Rhodes home page is featuring a story about seriousplaythebook.com this week. You can find it at www.rhodes.edu under "News."