{"id":1149,"date":"2009-04-17T18:13:18","date_gmt":"2009-04-18T01:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/17\/whats-in-a-name\/"},"modified":"2009-04-17T18:16:09","modified_gmt":"2009-04-18T01:16:09","slug":"whats-in-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/17\/whats-in-a-name\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s in a Name?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, but would a ballplayer by any other name evoke the same reaction?\u00c2\u00a0 <\/em>As I watched Alex Rodriguez standing on the top step of the visitors dugout in Tampa, popping sunflower seeds into his mouth, I realized one of the major epidemics attacking the modern game of baseball: the loss of creative nicknames.\u00c2\u00a0 In modern sports, the nickname has become a simple shorthand contraction: A-Rod, D-Wade, J-Roll.\u00c2\u00a0 None of these exude any gravitas or evoke any emotion.\u00c2\u00a0 Does the moniker \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A-Rod\u00e2\u20ac\u009d provide any description of Rodriguez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game or personality?\u00c2\u00a0 T-Mac tells us nothing about the skills or abilities of Tracy McGrady.\u00c2\u00a0 Gone are the days of the Colossus of Clout and the Splendid Splinter, and with them follows another collegial and affectionate connection between the athlete and the fan.<\/p>\n

One of the hundreds of millions of reasons to love sports is that they provide one of the only public arenas where it is socially acceptable to refer to a person by a nickname.\u00c2\u00a0 Think about your group of friends.\u00c2\u00a0 I guarantee you have at least one person that you know better by his or her nickname.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, nicknames\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor the absence thereof\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhave ruined some modern television for me.\u00c2\u00a0 I never bought in to shows like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Friends\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sex and the City,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because none of the main characters ever went by anything but their first names.\u00c2\u00a0 If you were one of six people that knew each other for ten years and \"http:\/\/i.a.cnn.net\/si\/2006\/writers\/jenn_sterger\/07\/04\/mailbag\/p1_entourage.jpg\"<\/a>somehow lived in giant New York apartments right next to each other, one of you would answer to something like Tex or Gooch.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s human nature.\u00c2\u00a0 In order for me to believe in a friendship, every ensemble cast that has its main characters as friends needs epithets. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Seinfeld\u00e2\u20ac\u009d had Kramer (a shoddy but still workable nickname), \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Entourage\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has Turtle, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Saved by the Bell\u00e2\u20ac\u009d had Screech, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Wire\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Sopranos\u00e2\u20ac\u009d had a veritable who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s who of handles from Johnny Sack and Big Pussy to Stringer Bell and Dookie.\u00c2\u00a0 Thus, I honestly believed that the drug dealers of West Baltimore were closer friends than Carrie or Chandler and their respective gangs.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, as a society, we have a hard time accepting the use of these monikers in public fora.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re married to the boss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sister, calling him Shmitty in a board meeting could be the first step in giving your two-week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s notice.\u00c2\u00a0 When G.W. Bush began addressing the D.C. press with pet names, they snickered behind his back and publicly derided him for acting so cavalierly in such a serious profession.\u00c2\u00a0 Somewhere along the way, these nominal terms of endearment became contrary to our notions of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153professionalism.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Not in sports.\u00c2\u00a0 In sports, we regale our athletes with handles like the Hammer, the Rocket, and He Hate Me (although that one was self-regaled).\u00c2\u00a0 The best nicknames not only aptly describe an aspect of the athlete\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s personality or game, but also set him or her squarely in the contexts and traditions of the sport.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sugar\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a good example.\u00c2\u00a0 In the past, boxers anointed as masters of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sweet science\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \"http:\/\/www.johnbarber.com\/The%2080%27s%20Project\/robinson1.jpg\"<\/a>and possessing skills as sweet as honey took on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sugar\u00e2\u20ac\u009d mantle.\u00c2\u00a0 These saccharine pugilists included such masters of the game as Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard.\u00c2\u00a0 As others adopted the role, such as Sugar Shane Mosley, the moniker expanded.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it offers a glimpse into the past, saying that those appointed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sugar\u00e2\u20ac\u009d utilize styles reminiscent of those past legends.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, UFC fighter Rashad Evans has added an entirely new dimension to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sugar\u00e2\u20ac\u009d name, but at its heart it remains the same.\u00c2\u00a0 The Light Heavyweight Champion, Rashad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game is as sweet as candy.<\/p>\n

All sports have a strong tradition of stand out monikers.\u00c2\u00a0 To name a few, the NHL had the Great One.\u00c2\u00a0 The NBA has witnessed Wilt the Stilt, Clyde the Glide, and Magic.\u00c2\u00a0 The NFL offered the Galloping Ghost, the Mad Bomber, and Sweetness.\u00c2\u00a0 Baseball\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tradition runs just as deep.\u00c2\u00a0 Baseball has brought us Hammerin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Hank (Aaron), Cap (Anson), Mr. Cub (Ernie Banks), and Three Finger Mordecai Brown.\u00c2\u00a0 We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the Georgia Peach and the Big Red Machine.\u00c2\u00a0 Some designations simultaneously belied that which they exalted, such as the competitiveness of Dizzy, Daffy, and the Gashouse Gang.\u00c2\u00a0 Some, as in the case of the Big Unit and the Big Train, provided intimidation where none was necessary.\u00c2\u00a0 Others aptly described their subjects, such as the Wizard, the Iron Horse, the Iron Man, and the Ryan Express.\u00c2\u00a0 I could go on for days, just peruse this list<\/a> on Wikipedia.<\/p>\n

Today, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re overrun by inside jokes that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t translate outside the locker room (Pronk) and syllabic contractions (J-Roll).\u00c2\u00a0 Just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use the contraction method for Felix Hernandez (F-Her).\u00c2\u00a0 We only see a few creative tags that both suitably describe a player\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s capability and evoke the traditions of the past (Pudge and K-Rod).\u00c2\u00a0 The main reason is the way that teams are covered.\u00c2\u00a0 In the salad days of the nickname, one or two members of the press covered a team.\u00c2\u00a0 On a daily basis, these beat-writers or \"http:\/\/www.slangon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/satchel-paige-hof.jpg\"<\/a>radio announcers would offer their deftly crafted appellations without concern that someone else might co-opt or distort their creations.\u00c2\u00a0 Today, the fact that an anchor on SportsCenter addresses Albert Pujols as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fat Albert\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily mean we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll ever hear the title again.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, nicknames provided us with a sense of intimacy to our heroes.\u00c2\u00a0 We referred to Willie Mays as the Say Hey Kid and we felt close to him.\u00c2\u00a0 It was something we would call our friends.\u00c2\u00a0 By referring to Ruth as the Babe, we counted him among our circle of friends.\u00c2\u00a0 Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sterile nicknames widen the gap between athlete and fan, which has already been made impassable by monster contracts, shrinking press access, and gated estates.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, as fans, all we can do is savor the game and remember the days when we marveled at Satchel, Pee Wee, and the Scooter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, but would a ballplayer by any other name evoke the same reaction?\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}