CD and I were sharing son's nicknames today... now and in the past. It would appear that this is a common tradition amongst baseball players and teams!

My son has played with Fish, Red, Albi, Bird, JLang, Little D, Big Cat and many others! I'll have to give him a call and ask for some of the others!!

Is this nickname phenomena strictly a baseball thing or do you have nicknames with your family and friends too?

Sons was always as his grandfathers was and mine was "Merc". Then when we took the trip out to Illinois last week, we picked up on him being called "Braodway" by a couple of the upper classmen. Being the only player from NY, or the east coast for that matter, it was kind of amusing. It seem that when a kid says he's from NY most assume it means the Big Apple...tall buildings, night life, yellow cabs...Da Bronx, Da Yankees...

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we picked up on him being called "Braodway"

LOL That's a good one! Many times the kids do get names because of their geographical location. Funny!

I love that name Broadway Funny how people do associate things like you say Coach Merc.

Who could ever forget Broadway Joe Namath

Interesting thing about Broadway Joe is he is from Beaver Falls Pa. That area along with surrounding areas is known as the cradle of quarterbacks. There are tons of proud, blue collar mining and steal towns around there. From a similar part of the country as Beaver Falls, they produced Johnny Unitas, Joe Montanna, and Jim Kelly - all hall of fame quarterbacks.

Laf - I think it's part of baseball's tradition. Players in other sports get nicknames but it seems much more prevalent in baseball for some reason. By the way, my son's was Roo because he was always bouncing around.

We had a kid whose last name was Broadway. He ended up with the nickname "lights". Broadway lights was kind of like calling a fat guy slim since his hometown was around 250 people. It also could have been that since he was throwing around 95mph it was usually lights out for the other team.

Well, I heard my son's team mates call him a nickname, and when I inquired as to "what did THAT mean?" I was told....don't ask unless you really want the answer! Actually, there are a few nicknames on the team that do not leave much to the imagination .

Being around alot of ballplayers during Spring Training,I have never heard them refer to each other by their real name. They usually add an -ey to their name. Like Matt would become Mattey or Boone would become Booney.

Booney was on the Indians the last two years and will be somewhere else next year.

puma - sent you a pm.

B is called 'Turtle" because he runs like one. His brother, C, is called "Little Prater" because he looks like his oldest brother. (Yea, my name last name is Smith, and I would go into the last name thing, but it's a story for another time. )

On the team, they have "Goat" (no idea)
"Creek Chub"(his cheeks are blood red and likes to fish) "Hollywood"(his cousin is Rebecca Gayheart and he had a cameo in her last movie X-Men 3.)
"Precious"(he's a good player that they need to take care of. he's in the 8th and has a great bat.)

Tas - Those siblings often pick up nicknames based on the older brother/sister I suspect. My daughter began playing softball for our HS while she was still in middle school and son was in HS. Anyway, she became "Lil C" or "Lil Curt" with his and her teammates.

Beez - I like "Roo" - very cute and unique!!!

That was B's nickname until "turtle" stuck with him. And when C came out to play, he took it over. C is his oldest brother up and down. He has more of a GPA, but all the attitude at playing the game.

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Beez - I like "Roo" - very cute and unique!!!

I feel better now that I finally get that nick name. There is a missing "kanga" there

I just couldn't figure out how roo's bounce

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I feel better now that I finally get that nick name. There is a missing "kanga" there

I suspect your mind is preoccupied elsewhere - on a trip south this weekend and a kid that's smacking the ball!

This is cute thread. At sons school they refer to each other by their last names or some of them their first initials, PJ, DJ or extended or shortened versions of their last name. I am not sure what they refer to each other in private. Head Coach is referred to by his number and some assistant coaches have shortened versions of their last names or just inititals.

One of former teammates was called Hollywood, because he was "metro".

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Originally posted by ClevelandDad:
I feel better now that I finally get that nick name. There is a missing "kanga" there

I just couldn't figure out how roo's bounce

I know SB's not a little piker any more but how could you forget the story of Christopher Robin and his chums from Hundred Acre Wood? Granted, that's not how he got tabbed with it but I just didn't think "Roo" needed an explanation.

I think Laf's right, you're mind is elsewhere. The Browns, despite their last minute efforts, pulled off a big win and you're headed South!

Nineball, Naterade, Niner, Iceman, Natinator, Doctor Double, and of course......Natedawg.

Nate - those are some pretty heavy nicknames. The kind that sound like your teammates rely on you to produce

My favorite nickname was when my son played on a 10 year old team. One of the guys they dubbed "Meatball"......He was a "round" BIG guy. Would have to hit the ball to the wall to make it to first base safely! We all LOVED him!

I luv nicknames. My father's generation [born in 1912] had nicknames for everybody in the small West Virginia town where I grew up. My father was called "Sam" by those friends that grew up with him even though his "Christian" name was Glen Edward. Apparently when he was around 10 years old, he rode on a horse drawn garbage wagon with a man named "Sam" and he became "Little Sam" and then just "Sam".

His best friends from High School were called, Bogo, Shine [a baseball pitcher who used to rub the baseball in his hands before every pitch], Purse, High Pockets [a tall basketball player] and Whalebone [a rather large rotund ex football player]. I grew up with Jaybird my neighbor on one side and Dopey on the other.

In Little League as a coach I encouraged nicknames as long as they were not insulting or pejorative. I used to take off a week from work during the traditional "Spring Break" to practice with that years team for the entire week. During that time, incidents would usually arise that would result in a nickname or two. I put the moniker "Gun" on a catcher with the last name Gunnoe, hoping he would be motivated to throw really hard to second on steals. He is still called that to this day.

However, my all time favorite was created by the kids themselves. We had a boy with the last name "Cook". I would usually parctice the boys in the morning for a couple of hours and then would have pizza delivered with Gator Aide to drink and we would take an hour off in the heat of the day and put in another 2 hours afterwards. The "Cook" boy would always run to the pizza and woof it down as fast as he could so he could have an extra piece or two. One day one of the boys said 'He eats pizza like Cookie Monster eats cookies". He was Cookie ever after that and his younger brother was "Little Cookie" when he joined the team later.

TW344