I got your 90's flawed LF:

Mel Hall

Posted by marcstuart on 5/23/2024 9:43:00 PM (view original):
I got your 90's flawed LF:

Mel Hall

Yes indeed! He had the bad timing of torturing a rookie named Derek Jeter. Didn't last long with the Yankees after that.

The fact that it's difficult to come up with names post-2000 is a great example of why the game is losing it's appeal - there aren't many "characters" in baseball anymore.

I'm also not sure why McGwire is on the naughty list unless it's the PEDs rabbit hole. In that vein, Bonds used PEDs and was also a gigantic a-hole.

Kirby Puckett had significant flaws, too.

Ripken on the flawed list because of his streak? This was a great thing coming off the strike. Everyone talks about McGwire & Sosa saving baseball, but they forget the goodwill Ripken brought to the game in 1995. His daily presence, his character, his leadership in the dugout and locker room. Showing up for the fans that turned out to see him play on an otherwise often uninspiring Orioles team. He is/was an icon in Baltimore and a role model for kids, and he walked the walk.

Granted, this is a super subjective list, but I don't get that one at all. (and I was not a big Ripken fan myself)

Great points all JMCraven74. I hear you about Ripken, and admit that it was super-subjective. Did I put him in both the pro- and con lists? Maybe I ovedid it, but I thought the streak became for the sake of breaking the record and didn't help his team. Of course Jeter who was sainted by MLB stayed at SS long after he could play it and when the Yankees had better players at that position, because of his ego and the club's seeing him just as ticket sales eventually.

Yeah, about characters in baseball - does ANYONE have a real nickname anymore?

I mean more than a century of "Death to flying things", the "Bambino", the "Big Train", the "Flying Dutchman", the Georgia Peach", "Vinegar Bend", "The Splendid Splinter", "The Human Rain Delay", "Sparky", "The Wizard of Oz", and now?

I don't think anyone on that great 1990s Yankees team, or the great 1990s Braves team had a nickname, unless we count "Chipper" Jones (is that his real name or a nickname?).

Kirby? Say it ain't so? What did he do wrong?

Posted by italyprof on 6/6/2024 5:12:00 AM (view original):
Great points all JMCraven74. I hear you about Ripken, and admit that it was super-subjective. Did I put him in both the pro- and con lists? Maybe I ovedid it, but I thought the streak became for the sake of breaking the record and didn't help his team. Of course Jeter who was sainted by MLB stayed at SS long after he could play it and when the Yankees had better players at that position, because of his ego and the club's seeing him just as ticket sales eventually.

Yeah, about characters in baseball - does ANYONE have a real nickname anymore?

I mean more than a century of "Death to flying things", the "Bambino", the "Big Train", the "Flying Dutchman", the Georgia Peach", "Vinegar Bend", "The Splendid Splinter", "The Human Rain Delay", "Sparky", "The Wizard of Oz", and now?

I don't think anyone on that great 1990s Yankees team, or the great 1990s Braves team had a nickname, unless we count "Chipper" Jones (is that his real name or a nickname?).

Kirby? Say it ain't so? What did he do wrong?

Re: Chipper Jones, that was his nickname. Real first name is Larry, I think.

Re: Puckett, it's not pleasant to read, but his wikipedia page details some of his troubling personal details.

Re: modern nicknames, we aren't that far removed from The Big Hurt (Thomas), Rocket (Clemens), Chicken Man (Boggs), Crime Dog (McGriff), Professor (Maddux), The Sandman (Rivera), but I agree that monikers like that seem to be less in vogue now. According to b-r.com, Ohtani is nicknamed Showtime, which I like, despite its callback to the 1980s Lakers. b-r.com also lists "The Millville Meteor" for Mike Trout which (a) is an AWESOME nickname but (b) I have never personally heard used by anyone.

For characters, I would need to suggest:
Jim Bouton, Al Hrabosky, Luis Tiant, Rick Dempsey

For flawed: John Mayberry, Steve Howe, Darrell Porter... if we just list folks whose careers (and in some cases lives) were seriously disrupted by coke and other hard drugs, this thread could probably go on for pages.

Jim Bouton bigtime

Ball Four and Foul Ball

if you ain read em

you don know baseball