Oil Can, Joltin’ Joe, Spaceman, Pie, Blue Moon, The Yankee Clipper, The Rocket, The Bird, Cool Papa, Scooter, Mudcat, Sparky, Big Train, The Barber, The Big Unit, The Big Hurt … the list goes on and on.
Baseball history is thick with classic nicknames, but it seems to me that the grand tradition is fading fast, replaced by launch angles, exit velocities, BABIP, wRC+, wOBA and other less-than-romantic descriptions.
I’m not knocking sabermetrics or the other contemporary statistics and measurements that more accurately reflect a player’s value or impact on the game. They just aren’t nearly as much fun.