May 26, 2016

BP Unfiltered

Shoo-Shoo, Krinkles and Gus: The Nicknames of 1965

by Patrick Dubuque

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It’s easy to forget, in the era of Retrosheet and the Play Index, that baseball statistics were once a precious thing. The daily box scores and leaderboards were as temporal as the newspaper they were printed on; the only way to appreciate a man’s career was to purchase an almanac, like the 1965 Sporting News Baseball Register. Dal Maxvill, longtime Cardinals shortstop, graces the cover mid-lunge/grunt, as well as a $5 price tag that equates to $37.98 today, or 100 packs of 1965 Topps baseball cards, which is worth perhaps somewhat more.

For the sake of the Internet I purchased a copy of this book at a local used bookshop for less than $5. It is unspectacular in most ways, listing career statistics dutifully and, in this age, unnecessarily. But the Register does contain some information lost to Baseball-Reference: Among its biographical information, written in the tone of a military manual, lies the player’s nickname and its origin story. This is a particular boon today, when we live in dark times for handles, as announcers mash together first initial and first syllable of last name, and managers add “-ey” to everything and call it a day. These nicknames are like the secrets of a lost civilization, a past that may one day be our future.

Given that context please enjoy, without comment, a selection of the golden age of monikers:

Patrick Dubuque is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @euqubud
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