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