Boardwalk Brown & Tully Sparks

Johnny pesky

Gene krapp

Eddie Stankey
Jj Putz
Bill Buttland
Charlie Fuchs
H. Fukudomo

nobody has has mentioned that creeky duo of Rusty Kuntz & Rusty Peters yet? They sound like K-Y Jelly Personal Lube marketer's dream.

Joaquin Andujar and Manny Sanguillen - both fun names to say out loud, though Andujar wins that one.

Daryl Strawberry and Pete Rose

Satchel Paige and Dizzy Dean

Ichiro Suzuki and Dusty Rhodes

You can't make these names up. Except maybe Satchel and Dizzy done. But they were Satchel and Dizzy, so they get a pass.

Crazy Schmit.....trying to get him on one of my OL rosters.

italyprof says, "You can't make these names up" but writer Roy Blount Jr. gave it a try in 1997.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/08/diamond-nuggets/305826/

Diamond Nuggets
All the weekly baseball notes you'll ever really need

BIGGEST Oriole question mark—ailing stopper Laird Dealie's elbow woes—was answered in the negative Friday, perhaps for good, in the first inning of Dealie's first outing since his injury-plagued left bursal sac went under the knife for the third time, last May. "I had command, I had location, but then I tried to waste an 0-2 splitter in the dirt and heard a noise like linoleum ripping," Dealie told reporters. How did it feel? "I just thought, 'Here we go again.'"

When he heard the noise? "No, just now, when you asked me how it felt. Go tear your elbow out and put it into words."

Postgame the formerly dominant lefty underwent a fourth bout of reconstructive surgery on the troubled joint, which was rebuilt using cartilage from his ears and a ligament from the ankle of pitching coach Mel Pehr. "Next year I'm going wire to wire," vows Dealie. "And part of me'll be there with him," quips Pehr. We'll see.

* Emanuel Vesto is just two bases shy of becoming the 138th man in history to reach the 300-pilfer milestone, but contract-extension hassles have left him reluctant to slide: "These legs put my children's food on the table. Why should my family have to be insecure about what I'll be making in 2002? It's affecting my intensity level." Current $53.5-mill pact expires just after the millennium.

* Cub SS Porter Creach—batting .323 and slugging .523 with 23 HR, 23 steals, and 23 doubles in 423 AB over his last 123 games -- recently turned twenty-four. "Kind of ironic, isn't it?" said the taciturn Creach. "Well, that's baseball."

* Mets have farmed set-upper Chad DeSisto to Single-A St. Lucie. "We were pleased with his mechanics," says a front-office source, "and he had a lot of presence on the mound—plus you couldn't measure the intangibles he potentially gave us. But he had lost two inches off his velocity."

* Both pitchers' and hitters' unions are closely following progress of suit filed by Tito Jolly to redefine a quality start, in light of run inflation, as five innings giving up fewer than five ER. Jolly's pact calls for bonus of $55,000 per quality start. Any trend toward adjustment for inflation is likely to be opposed by hitters, concerned their own incentives might be jeopardized.

* TOUCHY, TOUCHY: His battle back from experimental groin surgery is something Harkey Pollum refuses to discuss with the press, despite reported movie interest. Groin is still nagging, teammates confide, but Pollum was mum Thursday after consulting with groin specialist Dr. Shane Ng on the heels of four straight whiffs against Indians.

* Pulvio Lentz cleared the Fenway Monster twice Friday while blanking Sox, which gave the Marlins' LHP more dingers than Jirod Ford, Bo Clear, Motorola Joralemon, Anastasio Nix, Cobia Seay, Bamalam Copay, Jermayne Laine, Luc Estacion, Mickey Berry, Chet Pockett, Toto Lavallier, Ellis Booley, Spackle Mathis, Andre Umphree, and Cesar Spang—combined.

* Looks like, barring tragic injury, The Force will be with us for a while. Eyeing the arc of Rollie Wilt's 3-0 cripple picked on by slugging phenom Wilton "The Force" Coursey, a press-box wag shook his head over the mammoth smash and wondered aloud, "Ruth? Aaron?"

Came back the quip, "People to compare him to, or books in the Bible?"

To which was rejoined, "Aaron's not a book, he's Moses' brother."

"We will be too, by the time that clout comes down," was the re-rejoinder.

Speaking of biblical Aaron, he turned rod into serpent and caused it to bud, blossom, and bear almonds—everything but make contact with horsehide. That's about what Tintin Coates did to Dodger lumber in 2-0 whitewash Wednesday. "He threw us more knucklers than we could shake a stick at," sighed L.A.'s Bobby "Chef" Boyardy. But they tried.

* That frayed rotator-cuff fringe revealed in his last MRI has not kept Duwane Tice from spending off days speaking to junior high schools about the perils of nondeferred compensation: "If I can save even one kid from confiscatory taxation, it'll be worth it.

* QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "Anything I have to say to that [expletive expletive] I'll say to his face. I don't need to send that [expletive expletive] messages through the media"—Herc Kibble after Astro RHP Tarlton Pye was quoted as calling him an [expletive].

Over the decades it was part of being a fan to know names of players, but also the folklore and back stories. The long seasons, players up until the late 1950's traveling by train or bus. There was an intimacy to the game between the players and fans. You knew about the antics of Rube Waddell running off the mound to chase fire trucks. You and your pals went on and on about Ted or Joe being the better ballplayer. Ruth was a deity, not some girl. There was Mickey, Willie and The Duke of Flatbush. We emulated swings and stances of Musial, Stargell and Little Joe, windups of Marichal, Tiant and Koufax. We watched Big Bird, The Human Rain Delay and The Mad Hungarian go through endless rituals on the field. We didn't care what time is was when the game ended. We were preoccupied with filling out our scoresheet, or watching the scoreboard getting updated. There was still a prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box...what could it be?

It was more than a game...if you can't figure out who's on the field, you simply aren't paying attention. You call yourself a fan?

I think it is a little harsh to call someone out about being a fan. I used to do all those things you write about. Mimic swings, windups, batting stances. I would stay up late to watch a game, read the box scores the next day, argue with friends about who is best. I don’t do any of that now. I’m 66. I’ve been a fan for 60 years and many names I simply don’t recognize. I’m watching a pitcher in game 1 right now that I know nothing about. I looked him up on the WIS database.

Well, I absolutely share winnetka1's sense that something is not as it was, and not just our age.

I THINK I mostly share DoctorKz's points too, though I am not sure I know what he means exactly by the last two lines of his comment. Are you saying the game has changed, and also our relation to it, in a negative way, or are you merely criticizing fans today, old and/or young for not being as well informed?

I teach military personnel mostly, and I have tested them. Most have never heard of Mike Trout.

I am not sure when in US history from the early 1900s on when no one in a group of 20-30 army personnel would not have heard of the best player in baseball at that time.

Oh it was tongue in cheek, just like when the new kid on the sandlot didn't know who Babe Ruth was...I'm not laying into anyone...

Yes I truly understand the generational gaps. It sure seems history is less important to recent generations than before...You would think the opposite, considering everyone has access to any information at their fingertips now...perhaps they're just too busy to look back.

In another life I taught 6th graders World History. Most of them didn’t know anything except the little towns they came from & Philly (right next door).
They did not know the difference between a state,,city, country or continent. We spent the first few weeks of school just working with an atlas before turning to Ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt etc.

No surprise to me that a bunch of GIs don’t know Trout. Now Lebron, Kobe, or Brady would surprise. I have always felt baseball wa passed on from father to son, not massed consumed by TV. I got my love of it from my dad starting at 6 or 7. I tried to give it to my son, but he went to the ACC and is more footballed up. I do have a 10 year old grandson who seeks me out because his dad is only about music. So his cut out was at all Phils games and is now with me in my family room. (He will get it the next time we are together.)

fatguyrd, the Phils did a great job with the cutouts. I hope your grandson appreciates the memento for decades to come.

Thanks Cuppie1,

What I though was great was they charges $40.00; which went to charity. Then they let you know where you were so you could look for it. Then at the end of the year you could pick it up