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Great Names in Mets History

RealityChuck Feb 06 2008 07:55 AM

Alex Nelson at [url=http://www.metsgeek.com/articles/2008/02/06/great-names-in-mets-history-volume-i/]Met's Geek[/url] 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 Feb 06 2008 07:56 AM

The first name I thought of was Bartolome Fortunado.

DocTee Feb 06 2008 07:58 AM

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 Feb 06 2008 08:01 AM

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

AG/DC Feb 06 2008 08:02 AM

Grant Roberts, star of One Life to Live.

Benjamin Grimm Feb 06 2008 08:03 AM

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.

AG/DC Feb 06 2008 08:09 AM

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

RealityChuck Feb 06 2008 08:16 AM

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 [url=http://www.baseball-reference.com/l/longda02.shtml]Dale Long[/url] -- 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 Feb 06 2008 10:35 AM

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)

John Cougar Lunchbucket Feb 06 2008 10:44 AM

wham

metirish Feb 06 2008 10:54 AM

Excellent , the final word on that.

Centerfield Feb 06 2008 11:10 AM

Wow, great post.

Valadius Feb 06 2008 12:55 PM

Rep. Vinegar Bend Mizell (R-NC).

metsguyinmichigan Feb 06 2008 02:14 PM

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 Feb 06 2008 05:41 PM

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

Benjamin Grimm Feb 06 2008 06:32 PM

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 Feb 06 2008 08:45 PM

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

AG/DC Feb 06 2008 08:55 PM

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 Feb 07 2008 09:34 AM

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

TheOldMole Feb 08 2008 07:39 AM

I liked the tandem of Don Bosch and Don Hahn.

MFS62 Feb 08 2008 07:58 AM

]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