MLB power rankings: Top 30 nicknames of all-time
By John Buhler
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.