The fans speak out - Letter to the Editor

Baseball Digest, August, 2002

I loved the article "Nicknames" by Fred McMane in the June issue of Baseball Digest. It brought back fond memories of growing up in the 1950s, rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers against those hated New York Yankee teams.

The author was correct in saying that nicknames are going the same way as the art of bunting or starters pitching complete games.

All of the legends I idolized had nicknames, such as Rajah (Rogers Hornsby), Scooter (Phil Rizzuto), Big Poison (Paul Waner), Country (Enos Slaughter), Say Hey (Willie Mays), Pee Wee (Harold Reese), The Kid (Ted Williams), Killer (Harmon Killebrew), Moose (Bill Skowron), Skoonj (Carl Furillo), Campy (Roy Campanella) and Stretch (Willie McCovey).

I can only think of about a half a dozen modern nicknames that really stick. They include Big Daddy (Cecil Fielder), Nails (Len Dykstra), Hondo (Frank Howard), Pops (Willie Stargell), The Wizard (Ozzie Smith), and the Big Cat (Andres Galarraga).

I guess it's just part of the evolution of our great game.

Mark Isaac
Elizabeth, N.J.

In reference to the nicknames of different players, I believe you left out two sets of brothers whose nicknames should rate up there with the others.

They are J.H. (Dizzy) and Paul (Daffy) Dean. I would guess that 90 percent of the people would not know Dizzy's first or middle name.

The other pair of brothers is Paul (Big Poison) and Lloyd (Little Poison) Waner.

Frank L. DiVall, Jr.
Arkansas City, Kans.

For readers whose baseball recollections do not go back to the 1930s, Dizzy Dean's first two names were Jay Hannah.

In the June Quick Quiz, the answer about the only two players who registered 700 or more at-bats in a season listed Willie Wilson and Juan Samuel.

I believe that as a member of the 1959 Chicago White Sox, second baseman Nellie Fox had 702 at-bats.

Fred Guay
Richmondville, N.Y.

Nellie Fox never had as many as 700 at-bats in a season From 1951 through 1962, he had at least 600 at-bats each year, but his highest total in that span was 649 at-bats in 1956. In 1959, he had 624 at-bats

In Norman Macht's article about Eddie Joost (June Baseball Digest), which I enjoyed, Macht quoted Eddie as saying that he learned so much from Willie Kamm.

Would you give me some information on Willie Kamm? I seem to remember he signed with the White Sox about 1925.

Although my name is the same, I claim no relation.

William A. Kamm
Atwood, Ill.

Late in 1922, after four years with the San Francisco Seals in the Pacific Coast League, Kamm, 22, was purchased by the White Sox for the then amazing price of $100,000.

Owner Charles Comiskey bought Kamm because the White Sox were in desperate need of a third baseman to replace Buck Weaver who had been banned from baseball because of the 1919 World Series scandal.

An outstanding fielding third baseman who averaged .281 at the plate over 13 years in the majors, Kamm played with the White Sox from 1923 until May 17, 1931 when he was traded to the Indians for Lew Fonseca. Her finished his career with Cleveland in 1935.

He led American League third basemen in fielding percentage eight times, including six in a row (1924-1929). His .978 fielding percentage in 1926 was the league record until the late 1940s.

Kamm still holds the A.L. record for most putouts (243) by a third baseman in a season, a mark he set in 1928. He was born in San Francisco, and died at the age of 88 in Belmont, California in 1988.

Mark McGwire finished his career with 1,626 hits of which 841 were for extra bases, including 252 doubles, six triples and 583 home runs.

His extra base hits amounted to 51.7 percent of his total hits.

I doubt that any other player in major league history has ever had an extra-base hit total higher than 50 percent of all his career hits.

Jack E. Linker
Cincinnati, O.

McGwire leads the pack in that regard. Through the 2001 season, Carlos Delgado of the Blue Jays ranked behind McGwire with a 49.2 percentage, although Delgado's percentage of extra-base hits is likely to drop by the end of the current season.

See the accompanying chart for the leaders with the highest percentage of career, extra-base hits.

In the obituary articles on deceased former players in the April issue, it was stated that Lou Boudreau of the Cleveland Indians was the youngest manager at age 24 in major league history.

Roger Peckinpaugh holds that distinction. Peckinpaugh was a 23-year-old shortstop when the New York Yankees named him manager for the final games of the 1914 season.

Frank Cull
Chestnut Ridge, N.Y.

The statement about Boudreau should have read that he was the youngest major leaguer ever to start a season as manager when he took over the Indians in 1942.

You are correct, however, in saying Peckinpaugh was the youngest manager in major league history. He was 23 years and seven months old when he was named manager for the last 20 games of the Yankees' schedule in 1914.

Could you please refresh my memory as to the events that transpired at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium before and after the 1,000,000th run in major league baseball was scored?