Friday, September 26, 2008

Great Baseball Names

For years, I have been collecting what I consider to be great baseball names. There's a certain rhythm to some, others are just plain classics, like Babe Ruth. Here are few of my favorites:

Davey Concepcion
Johnny Bench
Vida Blue
Thurman Munson
Vada Pinson
Rod Carew
Minnie Minoso
Carlton Fisk
Ferguson Jenkins
Butch Hobson
Dennis Eckersley
Clay Buchholz
Mariano Rivera

There are many others. There are different categories of names: the stolid, straightforward "Pete Rose;" the almost musical "Mariano Rivera;" the alliteritive "Minnie Minoso." There are some very old fashioned-sounding names, like "Carlton Fisk," "Catfish Hunter," and "Thurman Munson." And the poetic: "Vida Blue."

Now there is a crop of new players, with interesting and unusual names that I can't yet categorize, like Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. The sounds of their names are still new to my ear, and haven't settled in yet.





4 comments:

Unknown said...

Edie,

How about Rico Petrocelli, Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Conigliaro? Those lyrical names of the '67 Red Sox!

Edie Freedman said...

Oh, there are so many. And then there are the nicknames: Yaz, Dewey, The Boomer, Tony Cee, Million-Dollar Bill.

Some names that are not so interesting: George Brett, Dwight Evans, Greg Schmidt...

Unknown said...

How about Shoeless Joe Jackson? Very poetic... a story in itself.

laxjunkie said...

Spike Owen. Given name.