Moe Berg
Morris Berg (1902-1972)

A catcher with Brooklyn, the Chicago White Sox, Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox, Berg was one of baseball's brightest and most popular players. However, he is better remembered 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.

Berg graduated magna cum laude from Princeton and spoke several languages, but as some opponents pointed out, he never learned 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. But he is considered one of the smartest men – perhaps THE smartest – who ever played the game.

Yogi Berra
Lawrence Peter Berra (1925- )

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).

It's appropriate that he follow Moe Berg on this list because in his own way, Berra also is a genius, recalled for his Yogi-isms of wisdom, my favorite being this one about a NYC restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."

Huck Betts
Walter Martin Betts (1897-1987)

A last name like that can get you in trouble with the commissioner. Pitcher Betts had two careers. With the Philadelphia Phils (1920-25) he was 18-27, primarily in relief. He went back to the minors, returned to the National League as a starting pitcher with the Boston Braves and compiled a 43-41 record over four years, highlighted by a 17-10 season in 1934.

Supposedly the nickname stemmed from Betts' love of huckleberries.

Bruno Betzel
Christian Frederick Albert John Henry David Betzel
(1894-1965)

Bruno was the catchy moniker for the man I've long credited with having the longest string of given names in major league baseball, with the runner up being Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish, elsewhere on this list.

However, a recent browsing of my Baseball Encyclopedia revealed an even longer name: Alan Mitchell Edward George Patrick Henry Gallagher, aka Al Gallagher, aka "Dirty Al" Gallagher, a third baseman who played for the San Francisco Giants and the (then) California Angels in the 1970s. A good, solid name, certainly, with a strong historical reference in Patrick Henry. But it's mostly memorable for its length, while McLish's full name conjures up all kinds of images, what with Calvin Coolidge and Julius Caesar, plus Tuskahoma, taken from a Choctaw word meaning "red warrior."

On the other hand, Bruno Betzel is a name that would be on this list without benefit of the man's birth certificate.

Betzel was an infielder for the St. Louis Cardinals (1914-18), later a long-time manager in the minor leagues where he once pitched a double-header, one game right-handed, the other left-handed. At least, that's what I read in a Syracuse newspaper several years ago when Betzel was managing the International League team there.

Apparently my memory was not playing tricks on me. Mike Coughlin, who lives near Portland, ME, emailed me, identifying himself as Betzel's first grandson and a Syracuse Chiefs batboy while his grandfather was manager. Coughlin says Betzel really did pitch such a double-header, though he doesn't recall the details. (I do know someone from www.mlb.com is researching the subject, so perhaps I'll soon know the year, the league and the teams involved.)

Other notes from Coughlin:

Originally I had Betzel's hometown listed as Chattanooga, Tennessee, passing along information from The Baseball Encyclopedia. Turns out Betzel was born in Chattanooga, a small Ohio town near the Indiana border.

And how did someone named Christian Frederick Albert, etc., wind up being called Bruno? "When he was a boy, in a German family living amidst other German families in Ohio, he had a dog named 'Bruno'," says Coughlin. "Since the dog went everywhere with him, he eventually picked up 'Bruno' as his nickname."

Coughlin's email including this Bruno Betzel 1946 quote about Jackie Robinson: "I don't care if the man is purple, he will be a major league player."

Buddy Biancalana
Roland Americo Biancalana (1960- )

Shortstop with the Kansas City Royals (1982-87), Biancalana also played briefly with Houston. He had only 550 major league at bats, but sports announcers loved to say his name.

I don't know if Chris Berman ever attempted one of his fanciful nicknames. My offering: Buddy busy as a Biancalana).

Carson Bigbee
Carson Lee Bigbee (1895-1964)

This Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder (1916-26) had a lifetime .287 average, twice getting more than 200 hits in a season. His best year: 1922 when he hit .350. Like a lot of players of that era, Bigbee left the majors at what today would be considered a ridiculously early age – 31.

He was nicknamed Skeeter, but I prefer his real name; makes him sound like a TV news anchorman ... or host of a late night show.

One other note: Bigbee was a manager in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during WW2. So let's hear it for Carson Bigbee, little i, little g, little b, little double e.

Hill Billy Bildilli
Emil Bildilli (1912-1946)

Bildilli was a left-handed pitcher who must have been very effective in the minor leagues, which is why the St. Louis Browns kept bringing him up to the majors for brief visits (1937-41). He finally hung around awhile in 1940, starting 11 games, relieving in 17 others, and posting a 2-4 record, with 97 innings pitched. Otherwise he pitched in only 13 other games spread over four seasons.

Tragically, Bildilli was killed in an automobile accident on his 34th birthday.

Bingo Binks
George Alvin Binkowski (1916- )

Bingo Binks. Sounds like a clown on a kids' TV show. Some Washington Senators fans certainly thought Binks was a clown, but were not amused at his 1945 performance in a crucial September game against the Philadelphia Athletics. Centerfielder Binks ignored a teammate's suggestion and played that afternoon without sunglasses. In the 12th inning the inevitable happened – Binks lost a fly ball in the sun and his misplay opened the door for a Philadelphia victory. Washinton finished the season in second place, ONE game behind the Detroit Tigers. Binks' poor judgment cost the Senators a shot at the World Series.

Otherwise, the player who called himself "The Magnificent Binks" had an okay season, hitting .278 and driving in 81 runs. He was partially deaf, which made him 4-F during World War II. He broke in with Washington during the last week of the 1944 season, and hung around the big leagues until 1948, also playing with the Athletics and St. Louis Browns. Unlike Bill Buckner, who still takes heat from Boston Red Sox fans for his critical error in the 1986 World Series, Bingo Binks eventually was forgiven by the Senators faithful, albeit a smaller (and gentler) group.

Rivington Bisland
Rivington Martin Bisland (1890-1973)

Bisland was a shortstop whose three-year major league career (1912-14) included only 31 games – with Pittsburgh, the St. Louis Browns and Cleveland.

I don't know how his last name was pronounced; I hope it was BY-land because I can picture Chris Berman saying, "Rivington Bisland or by sea." BIS-land is much less catchy, though either way, thanks to his daunting first name, Bisland sounds like the rich kid who played because his father owned the stadium.

Lena Blackburne
Russell Aubrey Blackburne (1886-1968)

Blackburne was a light-hitting infielder who went on to manage the Chicago White Sox (1928-28). He also was nicknamed Slats, so he could have been both ends of a vaudeville act – Lena and Slats. I tried and tried and tried, but found no explanation for Lena. (I assume Slats referred to Blackburne's slim frame.)

Blackburne's main claim to fame is mud. Seems in 1938, when Blackburne was a Philadelphia Athletics coach, an umpire complained to him that new baseballs were too slippery. Blackburne thought the solution might be the unusual mud he had noticed along Pennsauken Creek near Palmyra, NJ, just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.

Long story short, from 1938 until today and probably forever, Lena Blackburne Rubbing Mud is used to remove the slippery finish from new baseballs. Umpires hand rub the mud on about five dozen baseballs before every major league game. When the umps are finished, the baseballs still look clean, but the surface is much easier for pitchers to grip.

Ewell 'The Whip' Blackwell
Ewell Blackwell (1922-1996)

Blackwell spent most of his 10-season major league career with Cincinnati, playing briefly with the New York Yankees and Kansas City Athletics. He was a right-handed pitcher who stood 6-foot-6, weighed just 195 pounds, and threw sidearm, appearing to whip the ball toward home plate. His body veered so far to the right that the batter might have thought the pitch was coming from third base.

He had an amazing season in 1947, going 22-8 with a fifth place team. In June of that season Blackwell came within two outs of throwing back-to-back no-hitters, something accomplished only once in major league history (by another Cincinnati pitcher, Johnny Vander Meer, in 1938). At one stretch Blackwell was unbeatable, winning 16 games in a row.

Blackwell's throwing style didn't agree with his arm. After pitching 273 innings in '47, he worked only 139 innings in '48, dropping to 77 in 1949. He bounced back in 1950 with a 17-15 record and 261 innings, following that with a 16-win season in 1951. But he won only six more games before retiring in 1955.

Incidentally, Blackwell's style didn't agree with batters, either. He led the National League in hit batsmen no less than six times.

Footsie Blair
Clarence Vick Blair (1900-1982)

Blair played every infield position except shortstop in his brief major league career, though he was primarily a second baseman in his only full season, 1930, when he hit .273 with the Chicago Cubs.

How he got his nickname I don't know, though one website said it was because Blair was the first soccer star to play major league baseball. That was a joke, but apparently some folks took it seriously and have passed it along as gospel.

• Favorite baseball names index: