Great Names in Mets History

[RealityChuck]

Alex Nelson at Met's Geek has started a series of the great names in Met history -- not necessarily great players (or even players who ever played more than a few games for the ML team), but great names.

His first two choices are D.J. Dozier and Skip Lockwood.

But why should he have all the fun? Let's list ours.

My candidates:

Shaun Fitzmaurice. Cup of coffee outfielder on the 1966 team. I happened to be at his first game. At at time when transactions often got buried, I had no idea where he had come from when his name was announced in the lineup. Went 2 for 13 and never played in the majors again, but the name stuck with me. It seems almost archetypically Irish.

Ronald McDonald. He was a first baseman in the 60s or early 70s who never made it above AAA. His nickname was "Big Mac," of course.

Howard Johnson. 28 flavors!

[Benjamin Grimm]

The first name I thought of was Bartolome Fortunado.

[DocTee]

I recall an early 80s yearbook photo with a skinny OF (in a white tux and red tie) named Darryl Strawberry. Thought that was pretty funny.

[metirish]

Buzz Capra, sounds like he should have been an Astronaut or at the least a character in Top Gun.

[Guest AG/DC]

Grant Roberts, star of One Life to Live.

[Benjamin Grimm]

DocTee wrote: I recall an early 80s yearbook photo with a skinny OF (in a white tux and red tie) named Darryl Strawberry. Thought that was pretty funny.

When Strawberry came along, I thought back to a classic Mets banner that was displayed at the Polo Grounds:

RASPBERRY, STRAWBERRY, WE'VE GOT THRONEBERRY

It almost seemed like Darryl's arrival was prophesied two decades earlier.

If true, that means that some day the Mets will have a player named Raspberry who will be even better than Darryl Strawberry was.

[Guest AG/DC]

My sister had a classmate named Tillman Raspberry, whose name was the combination of a past Met and a future Met.

[RealityChuck]

metirish wrote: Buzz Capra, sounds like he should have been an Astronaut or at the least a character in Top Gun.

One of our local sportscasters -- the immortal Dale Long -- could never even pronounce Capra's name correctly. It was always "Cap-PRAY."

There were few sportscasters worse than Dale Long. But then what could you expect from a left handed catcher?

[Vic Sage]

fun with Mets names

here's a fellatio-related list:
Orel Hirshiser,
Bob Moorhead,
Dave Mlicki,
Jason Hardtke
Carl Willey, and
all the Dicks (Stuart, Tidrow, Schofield, Selma, Smith and Rusteck)
and the Johnsons (Ben, Howard, Lance, Mark and both Bobs)

for the musically inclined:
Frank Viola
Lute Barnes
Paul Gibson
Kenny Rogers
and the Bells (Gus, Derek, Heath and Jay)

for thosw with a more literary, artistic or cinematic bent:
James Baldwin
Ben Johnson
Randy Niemann
Wayne Kirby
Buzz Capra
George Altman
Jeremy Griffiths

For those who like to travel:
Daryl Boston
Don Florence
Mike Hampton
John Maine
Dave West
Claudell Washington
Miguel Cairo
Jesse Hudson
- also -
Choo Choo Coleman
Chuck Carr
Dan Wheeler

Animals:
Kevin Bass
Paul Byrd
Pete Falcone
Shawn Hare
David Lamb
Terry Leach
Barry Lyons
Jason Roach
Craig Swan
Hawk Taylor
George "the stork" Theodore

other food-related names:
Bill Almon
Chip Ambres
Billy Beane
Duke Carmel
David Cone
Cliff & Dennis Cook
Vinegar Bend Mizell
Norm Sherry
Daryl Strawberry
Marv Throneberry

how about some nice folks?
Ron Darling
Bob Friend
Damion Easley
Dwight Gooden
Randy Sterling
Greg Harts
Rick Sweet
John and Jose Valentin
Bobby & Ellis Valentine
David Wright
Todd Zeile

and some folks who are less pleasant?
Jack Aker
Darren Bragg
Jerry Cram
Brent Gaff
Jonn DeMerit
Andy Hassler
Clint Hurdle
Joe Moock
Todd Pratt
Mac Scarce
Larry Stahl
Pat Strange

and some who are downright deadly:
Dannty Graves
Dennis Misgraves
Tom Grieve
Mark Carreon
Ron Hunt
Ed Lynch

some big names:
Butch Huskey
Terrence Long
Jeff Musselman

and some small ones:
Blas Minor
Anthony Young
Junior Naboa
Junior Ortiz
Mark Little
Bill Short

the names of some powerful leaders:
Danny Napolean
Tito Navarro
and the Franco family (Matt, John, Julio)
Ike Hampton
Jeff Kaiser
Dave Kingman

and those with less powerful jobs:
Jack Fisher
Tome Filer
Duffy Dyer
Mike Draper
Jeff Gardner
Roger MAson
-and alot of Parkers, Millers, and Taylors

the religious:
Kurt Abbott
Jesus Alou
Moises Alou
Mike Bishop
Jose Cardenal
Christensen (John&McCay)
Tom Edens
Wade & Bill Graham
Bobby Klaus
Tom Parsons
Gary Templeton
Jon Nunnally

those found in nature:
George Stone
Cliff Floyd
Brent Hinchcliffe
Chuck Hiller
Jason Middlebrook
Brook Fordyce
Hubie Brooks
Dean Chance
David Weathers
Hank Webb

and those made by man:
Donne Wall
Brian Bannister
Tom Hall
Bill Speiers
Ron Locke
Bobby PFeil
Royce Ring
Tim Spehr
Jay Hook

here's a colorful bunch:
Kevin & Leon Brown
Rick White
Wally Whitehurst
Prentice Redman
Rusty Staub (+ Tillman)
and the Greens (Dallas, Pumpsie, Shawn, Charlie)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

wham

[metirish]

Excellent , the final word on that.

[Centerfield]

Wow, great post.

[Valadius]

Rep. Vinegar Bend Mizell (R-NC).

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I had some fun with names on the blog when we thought Torrealba was coming over.....


Should the Mets and catcher Yorvit Torrealba complete that deal they nearly signed this weekend, he moves up on an all-time Mets list even before setting foot behind Shea�s plate.

Naturally, I�m talking about his name. The Mets have had 26 Mikes, 17 Bills and Bobs and 13 Johns. But we�ve never had a Yorvit before. Heck, we�ve only had one other player whose first name began with a Y, and that would be Yorkis Perez.

Using the amazing Web site that is the Ultimate Mets Database, I waded through all our players to find the ones with the strangest names.

And these had to be real names. No parent wrote filled out a birth certificate with a Yogi, Mookie, Duffy, Choo Choo or Tug.

And I eliminated the Asian players. I shamefully don�t know enough abut Asian culture to understand if Hideo, Takashi and Dae Sung are the Japanese and Korean versions of John and Phil and Rick.

So here they are, the most outlandish, tongue-twisting and head-scratching Mets names of all time.

1) Guerrand McCurdy Scarce. There�s a reason this 1975 pitcher was better known as �Mac.� And that�s good, because I can only imagine what might have happened to Ralph Kiner if he attempted pronouncing Guerrand. He came in the trade for Tug McGraw and left in a deal for Tom Hall -- better known as "The Blade." Lots of colorful names in those transactions.

2) Cleotha Walker. Here�s another guy who was better known by his nickname, �Chico.� He was with us in 1992 and 1993. I suspect many members of the dreadful 1993 team changed their names as they went into hiding.

3) McKay Christensen. He had a stint on the 2002 team, and I believe is our only player ever to have a capital letter in the middle of his first name. How many times as he been called Chris McKay by someone in a doctors office who assumed he filled out his form with the names reversed?

4) Bubba Trammell. We all know of people who have �Bubba� as a nickname, even presidents. But it�s right there on Mr. Trammell�s birth certificate. Technically it�s his middle name. But if he went by his given first name, Thomas, would anybody remember him? Bubba played for the 2000 team, and is known for going AWOL on the Yankees, as if anyone could blame him.

5) Elijah Jerry Green. Elijah is certainly becoming kind of trendy, but this was in the 1960s. One more guy better known by his nickname � �Pumpsie.� And his behavior off the field was as unusual as his name. His biggest claim to fame is that he is the first black player on the Boston Red Sox -- and shameful 12 years after Jackie Robinson made history.

6) Xavier Nady. I liked the X-man, and was sad to see him dealt to the Pirates in the middle of the 2006 season. He is the lone Met to have a first name start with X. Heck, we haven�t even had too many guys with an x in their first names at all. So Mr. Nady can share this spot with Esix Sneed, Ambiorix Burgos, Felix Heredia, Felix Millan, and a trio of guys named Alex -- Escobar, Ochoa and Trevino.

7) Herman Son Winningham. Let�s start with activity in the middle. I need to know if he has a sister who has �Daughter� as her middle name. As for the rest of it, Herman Winningham sounds more like a bank president than an outfielder. Come to think of it, this member of the 1984 team played more like a bank president than an outfielder.

8) Mauro Gozzo. This pitcher, also known as �Goose,� was another member of the dreadful 1993 team. They were terrible, but they sure were colorful.

9) Reid Cornelius. That sounds like a Hollywood name for a brawny, blonde and brainless action hero. And amazingly, he�s not our only Cornelius. That�s Cliff Floyd�s real name.

10) Timoniel Perez. A lot of people call him �Timo.� I call him �The Guy Who Cost Us Game One of the 2000 World Series.�

Honorable mentions: Roger Royce Ring, Orel Hershiser, Cleon Jones, Duaner Sanchez, Bartolome Fortunato, Blas Minor, Octavio Dotel, Lute Barnes, Ober Moreno and Blaine Beatty.

Now here's why I'm worried about our new friend -- or not -- Yorvit. With the exception of Cleon Jones, none of these guys was around too long. Sure, some of that was because of age, like Orel, or a trade, like Octavio and Xavier. But most of these guys pretty much sucked. So we're pulling for Torreabla to break that cycle of shame.


Here�s some other fun Mets name information. We�ve had five sets of guys with the same names: Mike Marshall, Bobby Jones, Bob Johnson and Bob Miller � who were on the 1962 team at the same time. As if Casey didn�t have enough problems. Fellow Crane Pool Forum poster Steve Rogers reminded me that we also had two versions of Pedro Martinez. The lesser-known Pedro pitched in five games in 1996.

[Willets Point]

Butch Huskey. You can't get more manly than that.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Willets Point wrote: Butch Huskey. You can't get more manly than that.

I disagree. It sounds more like a lesbian name to me.

[Fman99]

My son, Nathan (Natey), was a big Xavier Nady fan. He liked the idea of someone with a similar name on the team.

[Guest AG/DC]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ="Willets Point"]Butch Huskey. You can't get more manly than that. I disagree. It sounds more like a lesbian name to me.

A name a lesbian might adopt to feel more manly.

[HahnSolo]

Just saying Dave Schneck always brings a smile to my face.

[Theoldmole]

I liked the tandem of Don Bosch and Don Hahn.

[MFS62]

]But we�ve never had a Yorvit before. Heck, we�ve only had one other player whose first name began with a Y, and that would be Yorkis Perez.

But if only Yosmerio Petit ........

Mole, I hope you meant you liked the names, and not their performances on the field.

Great list, Vic.
I'm sure you might have squeezed Richie Hebner, a grave digger in real life, onto the "deadly" list and nobody would have complained.

Later