Baseball is a curious sport where some of the all-time MLB players have some of the best all-time nicknames. Here are the 30 that were a cut above the rest.
Don’t try to deny it. Baseball was built on quirkiness. Just look around. Are all the dimensions of the 30 MLB ballparks the same? Exactly. We’ve got a Green Monster in Fenway, a bunch of ivy in Wrigley, and there used to be a hill in the outfield in Houston.
So, yes, baseball celebrates all things strange when it comes to sports. It’s only obvious that some of the best nicknames have derived from some of the best, or most interesting ball players over the years.
What we’re going to try to do here is power rank the 30 best nicknames of all-time. Before we begin, let’s lay a couple of ground rules out here. No alliterative nicknames make the cut, as those are kind of lazy. The Kid, Junior, Pudge, Lefty, etc. don’t make the cut either, as they encompass multiple players.
What we’re looking for here is a nickname that is undeniable synonymous with a certain player. You see the nickname and there is no debate who we’re talking about, to the point were it’s almost blasphemous to even think about giving that nickname to anybody else. The more clever, the better. So here we go!
30. Billy Butler: Country Breakfast
Billy Butler is a big boy. At 6-feet, 260 pounds, you know that he was going to have an awesome nickname. Butler is currently a free agent, having last played for the 2016 New York Yankees. He had spent last decade as a designated hitter/first baseman for most notably the Kansas City Royals.
Butler was an All-Star in 2012 for Kansas City, garnering a Silver Slugger award and the Edgar Martinez Award for the best designated hitter in the American League. The power-hitting right-hander may one day re-emerge in the Junior Circuit. For now, his lasting legacy in baseball is his top-notch nickname of Country Breakfast.
Coined by St. Joseph News-Press sports editor Ross Martin, Country Breakfast basically implies that Butler got all the fixings in his first meal of the day. A country breakfast usually means that all three meats (bacon, ham and sausage) will be a part of that scrumptious meal.
Country Breakfast meat-sandwiched between the first name Billy and the last name Butler is simply delightful. If we didn’t know any better, that would sound like the nickname of a nose guard playing for the Arkansas Razorbacks or a tag-team champion in the WWE. Instead it belongs to an interesting slugger in the American League in the aughts. Country. Breakfast.
29. Mike Hargrove: The Human Rain Delay
Before he was a major league manager for the Cleveland Indians, the Baltimore Orioles and the Seattle Mariners, Mike Hargrove was a ball player and a quirky one at that. He spent 11 of his 12 big league seasons in the Junior Circuit, mostly with the Texas Rangers and the Indians. Hargrove even made an All-Star team once in 1974.
He may be one of the greatest Indians ever, helping guide them to two World Series as their skipper, but Hargrove is best known for his totally awesome nickname: The Human Rain Delay. How does one garner a nickname synonymous with bringing the rain to the ballpark?
Well, Hargrove was an insanely intricate routine he would do before every pitch when he was at the plate. Hargrove would adjust his helmet, make sure his batting glove was all nice and tight on his thumb, mess with his sleeves, wipe his pant legs and then get ready for the pitch maybe. Sometimes Hargrove would need to repeat the pitch-ly rituals for a second time if he got all flustered and what not.
NOBODY killed the pace of a ball game at the plate in the 1970s and 1980s quite like Hargrove. The Human Rain Delay is unforgettable to the type of buzzkill Hargrove would be in the batter’s box. Not only did it take forever, but he would throw the pitcher out of his rhythm. Maybe that was the whole point of the rain dance?
28. Phil Rizzuto: Scooter
The late Phil Rizzuto was a Hall of Fame shortstop for the New York Yankees. Though he missed three years of his ball playing prime because of World War II, Rizzuto was still one of the most beloved Yankees of his generation. He was a five-time All-Star, the 1950 AL MVP and a seven-time World Series Champion.
Rizzuto would successfully transition to a lucrative radio analyst with the Yankees for over 40 years after his playing career came to an end in the 1950s. He was a little guy at only 5-6, but he made all sorts of good things happen in the infield
Rizzuto made a great glove at shortstop and was a terrific bunter. Since he was so shifty on the baseballs, the nickname Scooter just kind of stuck throughout most of his adult life. How can you not like a guy nicknamed Scooter, even if you don’t really like the Yankees?
People didn’t really know how old Rizzuto was, but he was always around New York doing good baseball things. While he would get to see Cooperstown induction by the Veterans Committee in 1994, Scooter would pass away in 2007 in his late 80s.
27. Greg Maddux: The Professor
Greg Maddux might be the best pitcher from the 1990s to early 2000s, as well as the greatest finesse pitcher of all-time. He was enshrined in Cooperstown in 2014 alongside two of members of the Atlanta Braves family in pitcher Tom Glavine and manager Bobby Cox.
Maddux was over six feet tall, but slender in build. His two-seam fastball that would cut back on the on the hitter is one of the filthiest pitches in baseball history. That thing was not hittable. When Maddux was younger pitching for the Chicago Cubs, the nickname Mad Dog played along with his last name. As he aged, The Professor is the one that sticks to him the most.
When Maddux wasn’t on the mound, he’d always be wearing a pair of glasses in the Braves or Cubs dugout, studying the game like its greatest student. In a game where players and managers try to think ahead of the curve, nobody saw the game of nuance quite like Maddux did.
Even when he lost almost all velocity on his fastball in the 2000s, Maddux was still able to win over 15 games annually by changing speeds and utilizing pin-point precession. Though somewhat scrawny, Maddux was still one of the better athletes on the mound in his heyday, winning 18 gold gloves in a 19 year span. The Professor knew what’s up.
26. Rogers Hornsby: Rajah
Rogers Hornsby may be the most underrated player in MLB history. In all honesty, isn’t the best second baseman of all-time? Well, he did hit .358 in 23 MLB seasons primarily split between the St. Louis Cardinals and the then St. Louis Browns.
St. Louis might have been the only thing besides baseball Hornsby really seemed to like. He was supposedly very difficult to get along with on and off the diamond. Hornsby didn’t believe in drinking, smoking or watching movies. He had like three wives, love to gamble on horses, and get base hits in the dead ball era.
Did Hornsby think he was better than everybody else? Probably, because wasn’t he? He did win two MVPs in his Hall of Fame career. Hornsby had a pretty cool nickname to that encapsulates what he was all about: The Rajah.
He was the supreme ruler of the baseball diamond, wanting only the finer things in life. Rajah kind of in a way played off how somebody with a southern drawl might think about pronouncing his name. Hornsby is still baseball royalty even over 50 years after his death in 1963.
25. Dave Kingman: Kong
In recent years, the closest thing we’ve had on a baseball diamond since Dave Kingman was probably Adam Dunn. Two giant dudes that hit a lot of home runs and not much else. Kingman played mostly with the San Francisco Giants, the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs in the 1970s. He made three All-Star Games and led the National League in home runs twice.
While he amassed 442 career home runs over a 16-year big league career with seven clubs, Kingman hit just .236 at the plate. Playing off his last name, cinematography and possibly the rise of video games, Kingman had an all-time nickname of Kong.
He was pretty much King Kong in the Cubs and Mets outfield at 6-foot-6 and long lanky arms. Kingman wasn’t a particularly great fielder, a defensive liability at that. However, he would hit moonshots to Skull Island well over the ivy wall at the Friendly Confines for years.
Dunn had Kingman’s level of power at the plate mostly for the Reds in the 2000s, but he didn’t have a nickname like Kong. Sure, they both would strike out a lot, but nobody thought twice about messing with Kong. He kept the dogs days of summer during some bad years with the Cubs very interesting. That’s for sure.
24. Charles Radbourn: Old Hoss
He didn’t pitch for a very long time, nor did he live for a very long time, but Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn did stuff on the mound that is still impressive well over 100 years after his untimely death in 1897. Radbourn only lived to be 42 years old, but Old Hoss is still one of the best nicknames to one of the best pitchers in National League history.
He is 300-game winner and holds an unbreakable record of 59 wins in a single season as a starting pitcher. Radbourn only pitched professionally from 1880 to 1891, retiring from baseball at the age of 37.
Not long after retirement, Radbourn would lose an eye in a hunting accident. He would open up a billiard saloon in Bloomington, Illinois and run it for the rest of his life. Radbourn was a recluse into his 40s because of that whole missing an eye thing.
Over a century after his death, people still come across Radbourn’s name when examining the 300-game winners club. Since he accumulated all over those wins in a 12-year period is insane. To win 59 games in year made him a hoss and an old one at that. How did his arm not fall off? Blame it on the Hoss factor.
23. Ryne Sandberg: Ryno
He may have been named after a relief pitcher Ryne Duren, but Ryne Sandberg was clearly the better ball player. Sandberg was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005 after being the face of the Chicago Cubs for the 1980s to 1990s.
Sandberg is one of the most versatile second basemen in major league history with nine gold gloves, seven silver sluggers and the 1984 NL MVP. He also has one of the most impactful nicknames in the sport: Ryno.
Though it is clearly a play on his first name, it makes a slender second baseman sound all the more tough. He wasn’t a rhinoceros, but Sandberg was more than a handful to be reckoned with during his heyday as the star player of the Cubs.
His star power in Chicago, and nationally, was grossly underrated. A lot of boys with the similar sounding first name of Ryan have been given the Ryno nickname at some point in their life. It was a solid nickname for one of the greatest players in Cubs history. If only he was a better manager…
22. Dave Parker: Cobra
If your nicknames derives from a snake, you’re just probably better than everybody else (i.e. Kobe Bryant a.k.a. The Black Mamba). Though there is not a lot of snake nicknames in baseball outside of the Arizona Diamondbacks, we have to pay out respects to the slugger known as Dave Parker: The Cobra.
At six-foot-five and over 230 pounds, Parker was a menacing presence in the batter’s box and in the outfield. He spent most of his MLB career with the Pittsburgh Pirates and later for his hometown Cincinnati Reds.
Parker was a seven-time All-Star, two-time World Champion and the 1978 NL MVP. Substance abuse issues in the 1980s and not quite having the batting numbers are what ultimately kept him out of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
That being said, Parker was a five-tool player in his prime that could strike fear in the opponent anywhere on the baseball diamond. It’s not like the nickname Cobra is tremendously unique, but that’s Parker’s nickname and nobody in baseball has the right to touch. However, we do need more snake nicknames, so let’s get cracking, baseball.
21. Jay Dean: Dizzy
The 1934 St. Louis Cardinals were known as the Gashouse Gang for the rugged appearance and the brash on-field antics. Most of the star players on the Gashouse Gang had funny nicknames, none more so than ace pitcher Dizzy Dean.
Dean was a fireballer that just talked about whatever non-stop. St. Louis would win the World Series that year and Dean would be one of the best pitchers in the Senior Circuit during the 1930s. His career was forever altered by having his big toe broken on a come-backer in the 1937 MLB All-Star Game.
Dean would try to overcompensate his pitching mechanics to offset an ailing toe. However, that would result in a shortened big league career. Dean would successfully transition to a lucrative career in the broadcast booth as a well-respected color commentator.
Basically, Dean was the baseball version of Terry Bradshaw during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s calling games for the Cardinals, the then St. Louis Browns and nationally for CBS. The grammar was rarely right with Dean, but he always kept baseball fans’ heads spinning on the mound and then in the booth.
20. Jim Hunter: Catfish
One could argue that Jim ‘Catfish’ Hunter was one of the most dominant pitchers in the 1960s and 1970s. Though his terrific MLB career would be cut short by arm injury in 1979 at age 33, he was one of the most prolific pitchers in his 20s.
Hunter starred for the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics and would later be the first marquee free agent after signing with the New York Yankees. He won five World Series, made eight trips to the All-Star Game and was the 1974 AL Cy Young.
Though he tragically died of ALS in 1999 at the age of 53, Hunter’s iconic Catfish nickname lives on. While it was probably just given to Hunter by then eccentric A’s owner Charles O. Finley for no reason whatsoever, the darn thing stuck to Hunter for the rest of his life and beyond.
Somebody tried to say one time that the moniker Catfish comes from a childhood story of Hunter’s upbringing in North Carolina where he got lost and magically appeared with a string of catfish. Nobody could verify that crazy tale, but Catfish remains one of the best nicknames the MLB has ever given us fans.
19. Phil Niekro: Knucksie
A few pitchers over the years have fully embraced the fickleness of the knuckleball. To this day, nobody has mastered the quirky pitch quite like Baseball Hall of Famer Phil Niekro. Niekro pitched in the 1960s through the 1980s mostly with the terrible Atlanta Braves.
Longevity and the ability to strike out the opposition consistently helped Niekro become one of the greatest Braves of all time. Though others have tossed knucklers before and after him, the nickname of Knucksie is synonymous with Niekro.
His father taught he and his late brother Joe Niekro how to throw the knuckleball as kids to hopefully avoid having to work in a coal mine for a living. The Niekro Brothers would have overwhelming success in the big leagues with 539 major league wins between the pair.
Niekro would pitch into his late 40s because of the knuckleball not being so taxing on his right arm. He continues to be an ambassador for the one-of-a-kind pitch to any struggling pitcher wanting to give the knuckleball a serious shot.
18. Ty Cobb: The Georgia Peach
Well over 50 years since his death in 1961, Ty Cobb remains one of the best baseball players in history. Known for his bat and his base running ability, Cobb gathered 4,191 career hits and 892 career stolen bases. Cobb was part of the inaugural Baseball Hall of Fame class in 1936.
He spent the bulk of his big league career with the Detroit Tigers playing in the outfield. Cobb may have starred on the diamond, but was reviled among big leaguers during his playing days. He would routinely try to spike middle infielders when he would swipe bags.
His less than pleasant demeanor coupled with his Georgia upbringing resulted in the Georgia Peach nickname. Though Cobb would make a fortune in his post-playing career as an early investor in Coca-Cola and General Motors stock, he would be labelled a racist and never was beloved as a ball player.
Cobb’s stolen base record stood until Lou Brock took it from him. He would have the all-time hits record until Pete Rose came along decades later. Cobb still holds a major league record for the best career batting average at .367. He also has the most ironic nickname in baseball history. There was nothing sweet about the Georgia Peach that was Cobb.
17. Frank Thomas: The Big Hurt
Frank Thomas was one of the best pure hitters during the 1990s. He put together a Hall of Fame career most notably with the Chicago White Sox as their popular first baseman and designated hitter. Thomas was a former college tight end at Auburn, so there was no doubt that he would have a big time nickname.
Throughout baseball, Thomas would be known as The Big Hurt. This stems from when he would hit one of his 521 career home runs, spectators would feel bad for the ball and the bleachers, as Thomas was just too powerful of a hitter.
Though he did leave a lot to be desired as a fielder, Thomas had the rare combination of hitting for power and hitting for a high average. He won the 1997 AL Batting Title and was AL MVP in back-to-back seasons from 1993 to 1994.
While Thomas unfortunately not on the 2005 World Series roster due to injury, he did receive World Series ring in his final season with the Southsiders. He would spend the next three years between the Oakland A’s and the Toronto Blue Jays before retiring from baseball in 2008.
16. Joe DiMaggio: Yankee Clipper
While he did have a popular alliterative nickname Joltin’ Joe, the one that we’ll use for New York Yankees Hall of Fame centerfielder Joe DiMaggio is the Yankee Clipper. He captained the ship for the Yankees as their star player in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Yankee Clipper nickname was first bestowed upon DiMaggio by Yankees announcer Arch McDonald, as he glided around the baseball diamond like a ship at sea or a passenger airplane. In a way, it was sort of a Chairman of the Board level nickname for the Yankees’ great.
DiMaggio was certainly great at baseball. He still holds the 56-game hitting streak record from the 1941 season, one where he won AL MVP over Ted Williams, who hit .406 that season. DiMaggio made 13 All-Star Games, won nine World Series and AL MVP three times.
His numbers haven’t stood the test of time, as 2,214 hits and 361 home runs wouldn’t garner Cooperstown enshrinement today. However, the story of the MLB cannot be told without DiMaggio during the 1930s and 1940s. DiMaggio is probably the most significant player in Yankees history not named Babe Ruth.
15. Cal Ripken Jr.: Iron Man
Nobody punched the clock like the working man who was Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. He spent his entire MLB career with the Orioles, making 19 All-Star Games, winning two MVP awards, the 1983 World Series and setting a record for most consecutive games played at 2,632.
From 1981 to 1998, Ripken didn’t miss a day of work. Penciling him into the Orioles starting lineup was an easy thing to do for any Orioles manager. The Iron Man was an eight-time silver slugger and a two-time gold glove recipient.
Playing in all of those games resulted in The Iron Man collecting 3,184 career hits, 431 career home runs and 1,695 career runs batted in. Little does become big over time, but big is still big and nobody was bigger in Baltimore than Ripken in his prime.
Since relocating from St. Louis to Baltimore in the 1950s, there may not be a better ball player to have played for the Orioles than Ripken. He may have only won one World Series in his career, but Ripken is arguably more culturally significant in Baltimore sports than Johnny Unitas and Ray Lewis combined.
14. Ozzie Smith: The Wizard
Known for his defensive prowess, it was easy to understand why St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Ozzie Smith was nicknamed The Wizard of Oz. Nobody had more fun playing in the infield than Smith. He was a 15-time All-Star and a 13-time gold glove winner at first the San Diego Padres and most notably with the Cardinals.
Smith would literally do backflips on the Busch Stadium turf in between innings. His brilliance in the field was never questioned, only horribly imitated by most. Smith played on three National League Championship teams, including the 1982 World Series winner in St. Louis.
He had some abilities at the plate. Outside of his amazing one-handed grab while with the Padres, Smith is best known for his walk-off homer in the 1985 NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Smith was enshrined in Cooperstown in 2002 in his first year of eligibility.
The Wizard could not have been a better nickname for a better defensive player. It only helped that his first name was Osborne. Before Harry Potter and John Wall started doing things in the nation’s capital, Smith was the only Wizard that mattered. Sorry, Gandalf.
13. Brooks Robinson: The Human Vacuum Cleaner
When he was playing third base for the Baltimore Orioles from 1955 to 1977, Brooks Robinson wanted all the ground balls. He was so skilled defensively at the hot corner, he garnered one of the most recognizable nicknames in the sport: The Human Vacuum Cleaner.
Robinson won 16 straight gold gloves from 1960 to 1975 at third base for the Orioles. He could hit a good bit as well with a .267 career batting average, 2,848 career hits, 268 career home runs and 1,357 career runs batted in.
Robinson was an 18-time American League All-Star, won two World Series in 1966 and 1970, and the 1964 AL MVP. He is one of the greatest Orioles of all-time and the best defensive third basemen the game of baseball has ever seen.
The only guys in recent memory to come anywhere near the defensive prowess at third base since Robinson were Mike Schmidt and Scott Rolen, both playing in the National League. Robinson is synonymous with the best years of Orioles baseball and vacuum cleaners. What a combination!
12. Randy Johnson: The Big Unit
It’s sad. There may never be another player quite like the fireballing southpaw Randy Johnson. The guy was 6-foot-10 and could sling a fastball at over 100 miles per hour. Where that ball was going half the time was totally debatable.
Johnson was a 10-time All-Star, a five-time Cy Young award winner and a World Series Champion with the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks. He finished with 303 career wins, 4,875 strikeouts and once turned a bird into a 1,000 pieces with a fastball.
His nickname was also one of a kind: The Big Unit. Johnson was coined this by another future Hall of Famer Tim “Rock” Raines during 1988 Montreal Expos spring training. In a brief moment of supreme greatness, they collided in practice and Raines would say, “you’re a big unit!”.
The nickname stuck and Johnson would eventually harness control of his fastball with the Seattle Mariners in the 1990s. Johnson was enshrined in Cooperstown in 2015 in his first year of eligibility, being the first member to wear a Diamondbacks cap.
11. David Ortiz: Big Papi
He recently hung up the spikes, but baseball hasn’t been the same since David Ortiz retired from the sport. After floundering his first six years in the MLB with the Minnesota Twins, Ortiz would successfully re-invent himself as the jovial designated hitter for the Boston Red Sox.
Ortiz will go down in history as one of the most clutch hitters in baseball. He won three World Series Championships playing for Boston, earning 10 trips to the All-Star Game and seven silver sluggers. Ortiz retired a .286 hitter with 2,472 hits, 541 home runs and 1,768 runs batted in.
His Dominican upbringing and larger than life on-field persona manifested in one of the best nicknames in baseball: Big Papi. Not only would Ortiz rip the cover off the ball, he had no issue spraying the ball opposite field to drive in a run if the Red Sox needed it most.
Ortiz was one of the few players in baseball history that was universally adored. He not only had fun playing the game, but he did so with a one-of-a-kind flare that players normally would not be able to get away with. Ortiz did because he was Big Papi and that’s all you needed to know.
10. Wade Boggs: The Chicken Man
Wade Boggs was a 12-time American League All-Star, an eight-time silver slugger recipient, a five time AL Batting Champion, a Baseball Hall of Famer and the owner of the most underrated nickname in MLB history: The Chicken Man.
Boggs was also a tremendously superstitious guy. Most of his quirkiness in the field had to do with getting as many hits as possible. He did collect 3,010 in his lengthy career with the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
The three things that Boggs did as a player that drew the most attention were: 1.) He would draw the Hebrew symbol “Chai” for life every time he stepped in the batter’s box. 2.) That one cross-country flight involving a few Miller Lites. 3.) The dude ate chicken before every game, so much that his Red Sox teammate Jim Rice would coin him The Chicken Man.
Did Boggs ever embrace the nickname? Probably not, but it only adds to the superstitious nature of one of the best hitters in baseball history. If you had to eat chicken every day to attain 3,000 career hits, would you? Absolutely, because chicken is delicious and Boggs is an inspiration to any kid that has ever played the hot corner.
9. Willie Mays: The Say Hey Kid
Willie Mays recently had a birthday. It’s been a long time since he last played in the big leagues, but he remains one of the best all-around players the MLB has ever seen. Mays collected 3,283 career hits, 660 career home runs, and 1,903 career runs batted in.
He was a 24-time All-Sar, 12-time gold glove recipient, two-time NL MVP, won the 1954 NL MVP and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979 on the first ballot. The long-time center fielder for the New York/San Francisco Giants also has an all-time nickname: The Say Hey Kid.
This one-of-a-kind nickname is synonymous with Mays from his inability as a younger player to remember his teammates’ names during spring training. He as always saying things like Say who? or Say what? or anything of that variety. That’s how people eventually got to Say Hey.
Sure, he had other nicknames like Buck and Cap during his playing career, but The Say Hey Kid is the one that stuck. Given that the nickname derives from an expression he used to say, it is almost impossible to imitate. The only player to have tried was outfielder Jason Heyward, only because his last name kind of made it work.
8. Babe Ruth: The Bambino
The most celebrated baseball player of all-time Babe Ruth also have a ton of nicknames to go along with his larger than life persona, including Babe. George Herman Ruth would acknowledge nicknames like the Sultan of Swat and the Colossus of Clout, but The Bambino is the one that resonates the most over time.
Ruth was a former left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox before reinventing himself as a power-hitting outfielder for the New York Yankees. The Curse of the Bambino became synonymous with Ruth, as the Yankees would win seven World Series during his playing career, while the Red Sox would go title-less for 86 years after the lopsided trade.
Ruth would set all-time home run record at 714 at the time of his retirement, which would stand until Hank Aaron broke it in 1974 with the Atlanta Braves. The Bambino nickname exemplified Ruth’s on and off-field persona more than any nickname of his.
He was the MLB’s first true power hitter, a big time partier off the field, and a guy who really cared about the kids. Ruth would die at age 53 in Manhattan in 1948, but his baseball legacy remains one that will likely never be tarnished in any capacity. There was only one Bambino.
7. Lawrence Berra: Yogi
Yogi Berra is another player that will probably never be replicated. He won 13 World Series as a member of the New York Yankees. Berra was an 18-time All-Star catcher for the men in pinstripes and won three AL MVPs in the 1950s.
For as good as Berra was calling games behind the plate and driving in runs in the batter’s box, his persona ultimately set him apart. While the nickname Yogi comes from how he would often times sit cross-legged in meditation after suffering a loss, Berra was best known for his unique speech patterns known as Yogi-isms.
They’d be a tad non-paradoxical in nature, but people would extract the deeper level meaning from these witty expressions. From “90 percent of the game is half mental” to “It ain’t over till it’s over” to “it’s déjà vu all over again” Berra’s quotes not only are part of baseball’s fabric, but America’s lexicon at that.
Though he may not have been a very well-educated man, Berra was definitely a thinker. He was a Socrates behind the plate for the Yankees for 20 years (1946-65). Berra passed away at age 90 in 2015, but all the Yogi-isms live on.
6. Denton Young: Cy
Denton True Young was baseball’s first undeniable fireballer. He pitched in the big leagues from 1890 to 1911, most notably with the Cleveland Spiders and the Boston Red Sox. Young is best known for two things: 1.) Winning more ball games than any pitcher ever at 511. 2.) The annual top pitcher award handed out in both leagues that is named after him: The Cy Young Award.
Young had other nicknames as a kid like Chief and Farmer, but his most iconic won comes from his powerful right arm. During a tryout for a professional club in Canton, Ohio, Young threw his fastball so hard that it mangled the backstop fences and grandstand like a cyclone had come to town.
The nickname Cyclone was eventually shortened to Cy by baseball reporters and basically everybody forget his first name, he was just Cy from then on. Young still holds several MLB records over 100 years since his retirement from baseball.
Young was part of the second Baseball Hall of Fame class in 1937. He led baseball in wins five times and ERA and strikeouts twice. Young won the first World Series in 1903 as the ace of the Red Sox. He is in both the Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame.
5. Mordecai Brown: Three-Finger
Not all accidents are bad. If you need proof of that notion, just look at what Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown did on the mound for the Chicago Cubs in the early 1900s. As a child, Brown was very clumsy. He fell into some farm equipment and mangled digits on his right hand.
Brown would lose his right index finger. Not longer after the farming accident, Brown would fall and fractured some fingers on that same hand. The fingers were never reset and his “twirling” hand came into being.
Brown could get serious bite on his curveball and had ridiculous movement on his pitches because of his oddly shaped right hand. He would win the 1907 and 1908 World Series as the ace pitcher for the Cubs. Brown would amass 239 career wins with a career 2.06 ERA.
Though he wasn’t a power pitcher by any means, Brown would in a way help paved the way for movement and finesse pitching to find its way into the game. Brown had no issue pitching to contact, knowing that the batter wasn’t going to be able to get much from his offering. He would be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1949 by the Veterans Committee shortly after his death in 1948.
4. Bill Lee: Spaceman
How does a left-handed relief pitcher from the 1970s have one of the best all-time nicknames? Well, if you were as eccentric and unforgettable as Bill “Spaceman” Lee, then you’d understand. Lee had a successful 14-year MLB career with the Boston Red Sox and the Montreal Expos, but it was antics that set him apart.
He did things differently like perfecting his own version of the Eephus pitch, known as the Leephus pitch and habitual use of marijuana, as it was the best way to deal with Boston bus fumes as he would jog to Fenway Park to go to work.
He once ran for president on the Rhinoceros Party ticket, wanting to bulldoze the Rocky Mountains so Alberta could get some more sunshine and therefore a longer growing. Other political platforms included banning guns and butter because both are harmful to one’s health.
Whether it was winning games on the mound, telling fans to berate umpires or protesting the release of Expo teammates, The Spaceman was always out of this world. He was so iconic, he now has a spot in the Red Sox Hall of Fame.
3. Reggie Jackson: Mr. October
Baseball is all about winning in October. One Hall of Fame player is synonymous with the 10th month of the year: Right fielder Reggie Jackson, Mr. October. Jackson was the premier power hitter in the American League in the 1970s. He spent the bulk of his career with the Kansas City/Oakland Athletics and the New York Yankees.
Jackson accumulated 562 career home runs, 2,584 career hits, and 1,702 career runs batted in. He would win five World Series championships between the A’s and the Yankees. Though he won three with Oakland, he would be best known for hitting three home runs in Game 6 of the 1997 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
That heroic performance in Game 6 would cement his recognizable nickname based on postseason dominance. Jackson may have been extremely vain and egocentric, but his raw power at the plate had pitchers in the Junior Circuit shaking for years.
He would be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1993. Jackson has since had his jersey retired by both the A’s and Yankees organization. Even with a home run spike during the Steroid Era, Jackson is still respected as one of the best sluggers in MLB history.
2. Ted Williams: The Splendid Splinter
Ted Williams is still the greatest player in Boston Red Sox history over 50 years since his retirement from the game. The guy had about as may nicknames as Babe Ruth. While The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived was neat, Williams did kind of come up with that himself, so that doesn’t count.
One that he didn’t come up with that might be the most clever baseball nickname of all is The Splendid Splinter. The alliteration there is off the chain, as it gets the point across that Williams knew exactly what he was doing at the plate for the Red Sox.
In his Hall of Fame career, Williams collected 2,654 hits, 521 home runs, 1,839 runs batted in and a career .344 batting average. Keep in mind that he did miss three years of his ball playing prime from 1943 to 1945 due to service in World War II.
Williams was a 19-time All-Star, a six-time AL batting champion and a two-time AL MVP. He is the last player to hit over .400 in a season. Williams did so in 1941, hitting .406. He didn’t win MVP that season because Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees hit safely in 56 straight ball games.
1. Pete Rose: Charlie Hustle
The best nickname in baseball also belongs to one of the sports’ most talked about players. Pete Rose is the the all-time hits king, but remains on the permanently ineligbile list for Hall of Fame induction due to betting on baseball.
During his lengthy MLB career from the 1960s to 1980s mostly with the Cincinnati Reds, Rose developed a reputation as the guy who just wanted it more on the baseball diamond. He once drew a walk from Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford in a spring training game. Rose would sprint to first base. Ford called him “Charlie Hustle” and the nickname stuck.
Rose wasn’t the most athletic ball player, but he would grind his way to 17 All-Star Games, three NL batting titles and three World Series Championships. Though he did win the 1973 NL MVP, his most indelible moment came in a glorified exhibition.
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Rose plowed through Cleveland Indians catcher Ray Fosse at the 1970 All-Star Game to win the game in extra innings. Fosse would never fully recover from the home-plate collision. Rose would have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1992 had he not bet on baseball as the manager for the late 1980s Reds. Charlie Hustle remains the gold standard for how to play any game hard.