Huck Betts
Buddy Biancalana
Carson Bigbee
Hill Billy Bildilli
Bingo Binks
Rivington Bisland
Lena Blackburne
Footsie Blair
Joe Blong
Lu Blue
Vida Blue |
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His bat, at least,
was Babe-like
Loren Babe is best known for a 1953 incident when Yankee teammate Mickey Mantle, unhappy with his hitting, borrowed Babe's 33-ounce bat during a game at Washington. Mantle then hit what may have been his longest home run, estimated at 565 feet. The bat later was borrowed and put on display at the Hall of Fame. |
He was baseball's
Secret Agent Man
Moe Berg was a very bright and popular catcher, but he is now best remembered for his work as a United States spy who gathered information during a baseball trip to Japan in the 1930s and for his dangerous espionage work behind Nazi lines during World War II. |
A very wise man
is that Yogi
It's appropriate that Yogi Berra follows Moe Berg on my list because in his own way, Berra also is a genius, recalled for his Yogi-isms of wisdom.
My favorite is this one about a NYC restaurant:
"Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded." |
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| Part 1 |
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| Loren Babe (1928-1984) |
| Or, as ESPN's Chris Berman might say, Loren I've got you, Babe. He played third base for the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Athletics (1952-53).
I saw him in the International League where he spent two seasons with the Syracuse Chiefs. After batting .305 in his second summer at Syracuse, Babe was called up by the Yankees, who still had several games to play.
Babe batted only .223 during his major league stay, so he was returned to the minors in 1954 where he played a few more seasons before he becoming a manager. One of his coaches along the way was Tony LaRussa who went on to a very successful career managing in the majors. LaRussa said Babe was an important influence and he called him his mentor. As for Babe, he went on to coach and scout for the Chicago White Sox.
Loren Rolland Babe was nicknamed Bee Bee, but it was his last name, which conjured up an image of the Bambino, that made him so easy to remember.
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| Sweetbreads Bailey (1895-1939) |
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| Bailey was a relief pitcher (1919-21) with the Chicago Cubs and (briefly) the Brooklyn Robins (later Dodgers). He appeared in 52 games, had four wins, seven losses, an earned run average of 4.59.
The nickname? Well, Sweetbreads is far more original than the obvious alternative (Honest Abe) for someone born Abraham Lincoln Bailey. However, it's still a weird nickname since "sweetbreads" is defined as "the thymus or, sometimes, the pancreas of a young animal (usually a calf or lamb) used for food."
In retirement Bailey was a weighmaster for the Phoenix Manufacturing Company of Joliet, Illinois, his native city. He died of pituitary gland cancer at the age of 44. |
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| Pelham Ballenger (1894-1948) |
| Or the taking of Pelham One-Two-Three ... three being how many major league games third baseman Pelham Ashby Ballenger played for the Washington Senators in 1928 – at age 34, making him one of the oldest rookies ever. He had a single in nine at bats. |
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| Cuno Barragan (1932- ) |
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| Catcher Facundo Anthony "Cuno" Barragan joined the Cubs in 1961, hitting a home run his first time at bat. That would be his only home run in a 69-game major league career that ended after one at bat in 1963 – when he struck out.
Barragan was a baseball and football star at Sacramento City College and several years ago was inducted into that school's Hall of Fame. |
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| Matt Batts (1921- ) |
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| The perfect baseball surname. Matthew Daniel Batts was a catcher who enjoyed a 10-year major league career, most of it in the American League.
He broke in with the Boston Red Sox in 1947 and was the back-up catcher to Birdie Tebbetts. He was traded to St. Louis in 1951, but it wasn't until he played for the Detroit Tigers in 1953 that Batts enjoyed his one season as a first string catcher, hitting .278 in 116 games, with career highs in hits (104), doubles (24), home runs (6), runs (38) and runs batted in (42). |
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| Beals Becker (1886-1943) |
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David Beals Becker was a National League outfielder in the early 1900s; his 11 home runs in 1915 put him among the league leaders, but his .246 batting average was an alarming dip from the .325 mark he posted the season before.
After brief appearances in two World Series games in 1915, Becker never played another major league game. I've found no explanation for Becker's abrupt departure from baseball, though he reportedly was notoriously sensitive to fan criticism and performed better on the road where crowds paid little attention to him. Perhaps he just couldn't take it anymore. |
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| Cool Papa Bell (1903-1991) |
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| Denied the opportunity to play in the majors, outfielder James Thomas Bell is in the Hall of Fame in recognition of the ability he displayed for 25 seasons in the Negro leagues (1922-46). Even as a 19-year-old rookie Bell performed with a veteran's confidence that earned him his nickname. He was the pioneer of Cool.
Bell also is regarded as one of the fastest men ever to play the game. Which is a whole other story that I stumbled into while researching this project. See Flash. |
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| Moe Berg (1902-1972) |
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| A catcher with Brooklyn, the Chicago White Sox, Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox, Morris Berg was one of baseball's brightest and most popular players.
Berg graduated magna cum laude from Princeton and spoke several languages, but as some players pointed out, Berg's education was lacking in one important area: he never learned how to hit a curve ball. His lifetime batting average was .243. He was in his eighth year of major league baseball before he hit his first home run; he had only six of them in his 15-season career. |
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| Yogi Berra (1925- ) |
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| Okay, an obvious choice, but after all these years, there remains only one Yogi. He was a New York Yankee catcher, later manager of the Yankees and the New York Mets, a Hall of Famer and one of the best-hitting catchers ever (.285 lifetime average; 358 home runs). |
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