The Best Baseball Nicknames

ESPN has been running a feature on the best nicknames in the major professional sports. The baseball one was mostly a hodge-podge of the obvious (“the Babe,” “Hammerin’ Hank,” “The Spendid Splinter”). Over at Baseball Primer, folks have offered up some more obscure and inspired choices.

I thought about doing a list myself, but never got around to it. But I awoke in the middle of the night with the name Lou “The Nervous Greek” Skizas stuck in my mind—nobody else had mentioned him, so I decided it was time to put together my own list. Not all of these are players I actually saw, but some of them, once absorbed from the Baseball Encyclopedia or another source, are unforgettable.

“Oil Can”—Dennis Boyd (1982-1991)

“Three-Finger”—Mordecai Brown (1903-1916)

“Downtown”—Ollie Brown (1965-1977)

“The Louisville Slugger”—Pete Browning (1882-1894)

“The Penguin”—Ron Cey (1971-1987)

“Death to Flying Things”—Bob Ferguson (1876-1884)

“Mudcat”—Jim Grant (1958-1971)

“El Guapo”—Rich Garces (1990-present)

“Eye Chart”—Doug Gwosdz (1981-1984)

“The Human Rain Delay”—Mike Hargrove (1974-1985, manager 1991-present)

“The Mad Hungarian”—Al Hrabosky (1970-1982)

“Mr. October”—Reggie Jackson (1967-1987)

“Penitentiary Face”—Jeffrey Leonard (1977-1990)

“The Barber”—Sal Maglie (1945-1958)

“The Wild Horse of the Osage”—John “Pepper” Martin (1928-1944)

“The Crime Dog”—Fred McGriff (1986-present)

“Losing Pitcher”—Hugh Mulcahy (1935-1947)

“Stan the Man”—Stan Musial (1941-1963)

“The Only Nolan”—Edward Sylvester Nolan (1878-1885)

“The Nervous Greek”—Lou Skizas (1956-1959)

“The Human Mosquito”—Jimmy Slagle (1899-1908)

“Stan the Man Unusual”—Don Stanhouse (1972-1982)

“Jigger”—Arnold Statz (1919-1928)

“Le Grand Orange”—Daniel “Rusty” Staub (1963-1985)

“Chicken”—Fred Stanley (1969-1982)

“The Old Professor—Charles “Casey” Stengel (1912-1925, manager 1934-1965)

“Doctor Strangeglove”—Dick Stuart (1958-1969)

“Sloppy”—Hollis Thurston (1923-1933)

“The Hat”—Harry Walker (1940-1955, manager 1965-1972)

“Big Poison”—Paul Waner (1926-1945) and

“Little Poison”—Lloyd Waner (1927-1945)

“No Neck”—Walt Williams (1964-1975)