What's In a Name? and BBA

 Hello friends!

I was looking through cards recently and wondered a) How many players used nicknames on their cards

and B) How often they showed up.. 

This has been a recurring thought for me because for example, Cito Gaston was always identified as Clarence on the cards from his playing days. He was referred to Cito on any card where he was a coach or manager.

And of course, when players use a nickname on their card, it's always interesting to see where the name came from.. 

Tug McGraw, or Frank, as his birth name states, was given the nickname Tugger by his mother based on the aggressive way he breast fed as an infant. It was shortened to Tug and it stuck, even wanting to be called that by his teachers. 

Clarence Coleman was given the nickname Choo Choo as a child by his friends because he was fast. 

Covelli Crisp hot the nickname Coco originally from his sister who thought he looked like a character off the Cocoa Krispies box. The name didn't stick until he was in Double A. On a questionnaire he put his nickname as Coco.. His teammates loved it and they started using it. It stuck and in fact, Crisp legally changed his name in 2013. 

Ed Ford. He was nicknamed Whitey for his light blond hair. It's funny though, some of the early cards are like the one shown, while others use Whitey.. 

Harry Lavagetto got his nickname in kind of a boring way.. 
He was nicknamed Cookie as a member of the Oakland Oaks after Oakland GM Cookie Devencenzi. 

Herschel Powell received his nickname from his father after the more famous Boog Powell. It stopped confusion, since Boog was the fourth Herschel Powell in the family (father, grandfather, and great grandfather) 

Jim Hunter. There are a couple stories on his nickname. The most commonly cited one is that the name was given to him by Charlie Finley figuring his 19 year old pitcher needed a flashy nickname. The other story, that later was found to be untrue, was that he went missing as a child and was found later with a string of catfish. 

I like the second explanation more than the first one, honestly. 

In looking through his cards, it wasn't until later on that Catfish showed up regularly. It would show in oddball issues, but none of the major ones until the 80s onward. 

John Odom. He got the nickname Blue Moon as a child because his round face reminded another child of the moon. 

Again, with Odom, his nickname appears on unlicensed and oddball issues. His Topps run all show John Odom. 

John Powell. John got the nickname Boog from his father. It came from the south, where kids who got into mischief were called Boogers, or Buggers. Powell's father shortened it to Boog. 

Leon Roberts got the nickname Bip from his mom because of difficulty saying "bit" as a youngster. He'd ask for a bip more food. He kept the nickname to honour his mother. 

Bip is one of those who rarely had his real name on his cards. 

Lynwood Rowe had a couple origin stories for his nickname. One was that he picked it up as a boxer. Originally is was Newsboy, but changed to Schoolboy. 

The other comes from playing in a semi-pro league for the newspaper as a 15 year old against men. He overwhelmed them prompting one to say they were beaten by a Schoolboy. 

Octavio Rojas got his nickname from aglicizing his Spanish childhood pet name Cuqui.. 

Raphael Freeman was nicknamed Choo but I can't find any reasoning behind it. 

Rich Gossage Got the nickname Goose after a friend didn't like the nickname he had, Goss. He claimed Gossage looked like a goose stretching to see the catcher's signs. 

With Gossage, his cards showed Rich until 1983, when Fleer, then Donruss, started using Goose. Topps always used Rich. Donruss would flip back and forth. 

Tim Raines is an interesting one. His nickname Rock, only showed up on cards for a couple years. And only on Topps.. 

Raines earned the nickname in High School Football because of his solid build and rough play style. 

His son Tim Jr, was nicknamed Little Rock. 

William Wilson

Apparently, he was given the nickname Mookie as a child because of how he asked for milk as a toddler. Really, it helped differentiate himself from the other speedy outfielder on the Royals, Willie Wilson. 

Mookie had three brothers who played Minor League Baseball, one being the biological father of Preston Wilson. Mookie later married Preston's mother, making him both stepfather and uncle.. 

These were just a few of many. I don't know why but I find it interesting when a player ends up being a nickname on his cards rather than his given name. I don't consider middle names in this set, considering then I'd have Lynn Nolan Ryan. 

Yes, I know I missed guys like Oil Can Boyd (came from his beer drinking days.. They called beer Oil)

and others, but I can't cover them all, right? Lol 

Blog Bat Around

There's a blog bat around going on right now about your three biggest accomplishments in card collecting/blogging. 

I'm not really one to do one like this, because honestly, me even sitting to write is an accomplishment every time since I started. Anyway

1: Starting and maintaining this blog as long as I have. I don't know how old this blog is but it's been around a while. 

2: Collecting the 1978 Topps set and working on the 78 OPC set. My birth year

3: Being able to find interesting tidbits of information people didn't know.. I don't know why but I like being able to hear "I Learned something today" who knows, there might be something here you didn't know.. 

 

The End of Summer Card Show

 Hello friends!

Sunday was the Peterborough Card Show. Some of the vendors were thinking it might be quiet with it being Labour Day Weekend, but it was fairly busy, both for vendors and for visitors. 

The vendors spilled out of the room they usually use and took up residence in the hallway as well.. The only problem was... The way they set up the tables blocked the accessible washroom. I'm usually the only one in a chair, but other people who may need the larger washroom space, so I mentioned it to the organizer and they moved the table so it was away from the door. 

"Enough Yammering!" I hear you say... "Show us the cards!" 

As you wish, dear reader.. 

Now, some of the regular vendors were there. The one that's been my main OPC hookup didn't have a chance to grab his OPC due to needing to price and organize for football.. (understandable) But I did find some stuff elsewhere.. 

First off, one of the cards that still makes people scratch their heads.. .Pete Rose as an Expo. I had fun trying to find this one.. 

John Sneed. Another early 2000s reliever that was rather forgettable for the Jays.. Though I still love those uniforms.. 

In my collecting targets, I'm looking to get OPC baseball from 1978 to 1994.. I picked up a few OPC 81 Expos, only finding out later I only really needed a couple for the set/Team collections. The rest go into the Expos Box of Doom!!!

Again, Raines and Dawson 1982. I think the design holds up well for the OPC version. 

85s.. Gary Carter while being shown with the Mets label and the Traded info would still weasel his way into my team set since he has the Expos uni on. 

Another Timmy!

I got a run of 86 Leaf Expos but most of them are for the EBOD

I apparently am actually collecting 1987 Leaf.. I have over 100 unique cards from it

This one was fun to find too.. Marquis Grissom UD/Denny's Grand Slam. From 93, but talks about his Slam in 91.. 

I'm guessing the copy I picked up was the blue or purple.. Couldn't really tell either way... 

Jordan Romanocheese! It will have one of two homes.. Jays Binder or Canadians Binder. 

I didn't realize I had all the Update Jays aside from Alan Roden. So I have dupes.. Jake Bloss was also needed. 

2026 Jays. The design is growing on me.. 

I had a lot of trouble to find this one.. I hate the number of inserts and parallels Topps puts out now.. 

This is 2026 Topps 1991 Anniversary set Series 2.. 

And the most annoying to find.. I didn't notice until it was out of the toploader that it was serial numbered. 

Bo Naylor, obviously, is Josh Naylor's brother. He's here in a shiny card showing a team he's no longer with.. 

The next show is November. I'm looking forward to it. 

Check Out My Cards, Man

 Hello Friends!

Today I want to show some cards I received in the mail recently from COMC.. Probably not going to order for a while until we get adults running the governments again.. 

I know someone who would probably go after this card for the Flag portion of it. Adam Loewen. 

Oh Look.. Adam Loewen.. 

And another Adam Loewen.. (yes, I got a few of him) 

And an autographed Adam Loewen.. One less to get for the Canadians Autograph Project. 

I honestly didn't hear about this guy until I started using Open Binders on BlueSky. Dick Lines is Canadian. He also has one of those names where you wonder "why?"

Here's Mr Lines again. 

Gordy Pladson. I'm honestly surprised he's not a hockey player with that name.. It just sounds 

A) Canadian

B) Hockeyish. 

The funny thing is, he never played hockey.. Baseball and Basketball were his sports. 

A Jason Dickson autograph. I found he's one that's tough to find cards of.. 

Yeah yeah yeah.. One more Adam Loewen... But with Nick Markakis!

Finally, Bill Harris.. Another I didn't know about until I used OpenBinders. 

Today was also the card show in town. The next one is in November. I did get some goodies today, but they're fodder for the next installment. 

Book Report: Before the Blue Jays

 Hello friends!

I know I've been away from this for a while. I've had, and have, things going on that are sapping my energy and really, will to do much of anything lately. So consider this a proof of life post as well lol

Anyway, I recently finished a book called Before the Blue Jays that talked about baseball in Toronto before 1977. 

It talks about the beginnings of baseball in Toronto, up to the 60s when the Maple Leafs left the city to go to Louisville, KY, then Pawtucket, RI, then Worcester MA...

It's written in a style similar to Danny Gallagher's books about the Expos, where there are short chapters on a particular player or person important to early baseball in Toronto. 

It doesn't go too in depth about the seasons or anything like books I've read about baseball in London or Ottawa, but it is an interesting read. 

I do recommend the book if you're into baseball history or if you're interested about baseball in Toronto before 1977..

Well, I'm going to try to get over the hump and try to write more. I have a couple topics in mind. We'll see how they go.. 

Until next time.. 

A Topic Done to Death

 Hello Friends!

Today's post comes from a conversation on a discord server, where people were talking about Eric Young Sr, who played for the Rockies among others. They referred to him as E.Y.. 
Now, being a wrestling fan, E.Y. is a different Eric Young. The one that is most famous for his runs in TNA. 

So this got me thinking... How many cross-sport same namers do we have? I Mean the whole Bob Gibson and Jim Hunter thing has been done, dragged around, beaten to death, reanimated, beaten to death again, burned, used as fertilizer, and finally reborn just to be fodder AGAIN... 

The two that stick out to me right away are (now) Eric Young.. I couldn't remember the ball player's first name at first until I verified on BBRef... The other one is Greg Gagne.. 

So let's go over a couple (including the two I mentioned) 

This Terry is still alive for one (93) and played in the Majors for 7 seasons, 1960-1966 for Milwaukee, Detroit, and Philadelphia. 

This Terry Fox is obviously better known in Canada, however, he was a 20 something kid who, aftre losing his leg to cancer, decided to run across Canada to fundraise for Canceer research. He made it from Newfoundland to Thunder Bay, Ontario when he had to stop due to cancer returning. He has a memorial statue outside Thunder Bay, and the stretch from Nipigon to Thunder Bay is the Terry Fox Courage Highway. 

There is an annual Terry Fox run to raise money for Cancer Research. 

And here we have a card from Gummy Arts. 

Mike Tyson played from 1972-1981 for the Cardinals and the Cubs. 

The more known Tyson is the boxer. Ol' Bitey Ear himself. Many championships, Boxing HOF.

This one always got me.. Greg Gagne and Greg Gagne. Both in Minneapolis.. The baseball player was on the Twins, Royals, and Dodgers. 

This Greg Gagne was a wrestler for the AWA promotion that ran in Minnesota, the Midwest, and the Prairie provinces in Canada. He is the son of Vern Gagne, the promoter of the territory. 

The only difference is the pronunciation of the last name.. The player was GAG-ne, while the wrestler was Gon-ye... 

Finally Eric Young.. I remember watching this guy play baseball. His son played as well and I believe is a coach somewhere in MLB now. (or it could be SR.. I can't remember.. ) 

Eric Young the wrestler is from Ontario, Canada. As I mentioned, he was best known for his runs in TNA wrestling. He originally was part of a group in TNA called Team Canada. He started as a goofy character and morphed into a more serious, deranged character over the years. He was briefly in WWE as part of a group called SaNiTy..

So these are the ones I  can think of off the top of my head.. Any others, dear reader? Let me know.