Chet Laabs
Chester Peter Laabs (1912-1983)

It's the outfielder's unusual last name that stayed with me – plus memories of him tearing up International League pitching when he played for Buffalo after his 11-season major league career was over.

He was a short slugger (5-foot-8) who for awhile seemed the second coming of Hack Wilson. He had his best year in 1942 when he had 27 home runs and 99 RBI for the St. Louis Browns. At one point in July Laabs hit eight home runs in eight games. He was second in the league in homers that season to Ted Williams' 36.

Williams went off to World War II in 1943, but the 31-year-old Laabs remained with the Browns, making the All-Star team. A season later Laabs helped the Browns win their only pennant. He played just 66 games in 1944 and going into the final game had hit only three home runs. But he closed out the season with a bang, hitting two home runs against the Yankees. The win clinched the pennant for the Browns, who finished one game ahead of Detroit.

It was an all-St. Louis World Series, the Cardinals winning in six games. Laabs played in five of those game, batted .200 and struck out six times.

With Detroit in 1938 Laabs had the season's most famous strike out. It happened on Oct. 2 against Cleveland ace Bob Feller, who set what was then a major league record by striking out 18 hitters in one game. Laabs struck out five times that day, but it was his fifth strike out that gave Feller the record.

On his way up Laabs had some big seasons in the minor leagues, hitting .384 for Fort Wayne of the Three I League (Indiana, Illinois and Iowa) in 1935, and hitting 42 home runs the next season for Milwaukee of the American Association. They loved Laabs in Milwaukee because that was his birthplace.

When he retired he moved to Detroit where his major league career had started in 1937. He worked several years for a trophy company, retired, and died in Warren, MI, in 1983 at the age of 70.

Doyle 'Porky' Lade
Doyle Marion Lade (1921-2000)

I didn't know about the 'Porky' nickname until I looked him up. To me, Doyle Lade was memorable enough; Porky Lade sounds almost obscene, like a joke in one of those "Porky" movies from several years ago.

Lade was a right-handed pitcher who was a switch-hitter during part of his career. He spent five seasons with the Chicago Cubs (1946-50), appeared in 126 games, about half of them as a starter.

His best season was 1947 when he had an 11-10 won-lost record. He walked more batters than he struck out. For a pitcher, Lade was a pretty good hitter, batting .220 for his career.

Napoleon Lajoie
Napoleon Lajoie (1874-1959)

I love saying his last name a bit differently each time, sometimes dragging out the last two syllables – jooooo-weeee. Yet, for all I know, the proper pronunciation is la-JWAH. You know how those French are.

There's not a whole lot you can say about the Woonsocket, RI, native without getting into a long discussion of the early days of baseball. He was one of the greats. Describing him as a superstar is an understatement.

He was called Nap, for short, also Larry. A Hall of Fame second baseman, Lajoie originally played first base. His .422 batting average in 1901 doesn't receive the respect it may deserve because that was the American League's first season and National League fans, especially, were reluctant to applaud a player who jumped their league to play with the upstarts. Lajoie was so dominant in 1901 that the second-best batting average, by Boston's Buck Freeman, was 77 points lower, at .345.

Lajoie had spent his five-season National League career with the Philadelphia Phillies, who were angry when the player not only left the team after 1900, but joined the Philadelphia Athletics of the new league. The Phillies sued to get Lajoie back, and after a lot of legal wrangling the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1902 ruled that all Phillies players who had jumped to the new league had to rejoin the National League team. American League president Ban Johnson outwitted the Phillies by transferring Lajoie from the Athletics to the Cleveland Blues. Johnson also ordered Lajoie to stay out of Pennsylvania, which forced him to hide away in New Jersey each time Cleveland had a road game against the Athletics.

Lajoie remained with Cleveland until 1914, managing the team from 1905-1909. He was so popular that the team changed its nickname from the Blues to the Naps.

He returned to Philadelphia in 1915 and played for the Athletics for two seasons. His lifetime batting average was .338. He had 3,244 hits. Lajoie was a right-handed hitter and had below-average speed, which prompted sportswriter Grantland Rice to say that if he hit left-handed and had Ty Cobb's speed, Lajoie probably would have batted .500.

Arlie Latham
Walter Arlington Latham (1860-1952)

Latham is here mostly because of his nickname: The Freshest Man on Earth. He earned it through his mischievous behavior; the nickname also was the title of a popular song.

Some say Latham is the reason baseball created coaching boxes. He was often used as the third base coach. In those days coaches could wander as they pleased. Latham took matters too far and did a lot of in-your-face heckling of opposing batters.

Apparently Latham would do almost anything for a laugh. Not everyone appreciated his humor, such as umpires who in the late afternoon glanced at the dugout and saw candles Latham had lit, his way of complaining it was too dark to continue playing.

Sometimes he did cartwheels while running the bases, sometimes he'd turn and address the crowd. He celebrated one July 4 by setting off a firecracker he had hidden under third base, his position on the field.

Not surprisingly, he spent his off-seasons performing a song-and-dance act on the vaudeville circuit where he met his wife, Katherine Conway. He also played in a semi-professional league for something called roller polo, described as hockey on roller skates.

Latham was impressed with his footspeed, which is why he was drawn into a race with another player, future evangelist Billy Sunday, who won the race rather easily. On another occasion Latham and a teammate, Doc Bushsong, had a contest to prove who had the better arm. Latham won, much to the delight of his manager, Charlie Comiskey who had bet $100 on his third baseman. Unfortunately, Latham injured his arm making his throw, and the injury bothered him for the rest of his career.

He played 17 seasons, most of them with St. Louis of the American Association and Cincinnati of the National League. His lifetime batting average was .269. He may not have been as fast as Billy Sunday, but Latham did have speed and stole a lot of bases. Granted, it was relatively easy to steal a base in those days. but Latham usually was among league leaders, as he was in runs scored.

Latham's career trickled to an end in the late 1890s. He played his last full season, with Cincinnati, in 1895, but the following year appeared in eight games for the St. Louis Browns, as the National League team was then known. In 1899 he made six appearances with the Washington Senators. Later he was a coach for John McGraw and the New York Giants. It was with the Giants, in 1909, that he played four games, even stealing a base – at age 49.

He moved to England for a while, running a nightclub. When he returned to the United States about 1930, he settled in New York and ran a delicatessen. McGraw, who was still managing the Giants, found Latham and offered him a job as a press box attendant at both Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds. (This was in keeping with a McGraw habit of providing work for former teammates and players. Former first baseman Dan Brouthers and pitcher Amos Rusie became watchmen at the Polo Grounds, thanks to McGraw.)

Whatever his circumstances, Latham maintained his humor and a cocky attitude that led him to make claims he couldn't support. Among them: that the first bat by the company that became famous for their Louisville Sluggers had been made especially for Latham (possibly true), and that while umpiring in the South Atlantic League in the early 1900s he discovered Ty Cobb (probably untrue).

That Arlie Latham was one of baseball's most colorful characters? There's no denying the truth of that one.

Check out the Arlie Latham profile at www.baseballhalloffame.org
source of much of the above material.

Tacks Latimer
Clifford Wesley Latimer (1877-1936)

Tacks. Makes him sound like a Damon Runyon character. Unfortunately, Latimer's life was more like a James Cagney movie.

After the catcher left baseball (which included just 27 major league games in five seasons, 1898-1902), he became a policeman with the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1924, he clashed with a superior, Lt. Charles Mackrodt, and challenged him to a duel. When they faced each other, Mackrodt tried to back out, but Latimer shot and killed him.

Latimer was sent to prison and proved a model prisoner; he was pardoned in 1930.

Cookie Lavagetto
Harry Arthur Lavagetto (1912-1990)

Lavagetto played third and second base with the Pittsburgh Pirates and (mostly) the Brooklyn Dodgers in a 10-season major league career that spanned 1934-47, with four years lost to World War II. He is best remembered for breaking up what seemed sure to be the first World Series no-hitter when, in 1947, he hit a double with two outs in the 9th inning against New York Yankee pitcher Floyd Bevens.

Seldom have so many people rooted so hard for a no-hitter to be spoiled. For one thing, most people were pulling for the Dodgers. For another, Bevens had pitched an incredibly sloppy game, walking ten batters (still a World Series record), even giving up a run without a hit in the fifth inning. In the 9th inning, Bevens walked two more, one intentionally, which is why Lavagetto's double was all the Dodgers needed to win, 3-2. Brooklyn thus evened up the series, two games apiece, but the Yankees would prevail, winning the series, four games to three. Lavagetto left the major leagues when the series ended.

He was born and raised in Oakland (CA) and was a baseball star at Oakland Technical High School. After graduation he played with a local minor league team, the Oakland Oaks, earning the nickname "Cookie's Boy" because he'd been signed by the team's president, Victor "Cookie" Devincenzi. Soon Lavagetto was also dubbed Cookie.

In 1948 Lavagetto returned to Oakland and played third base. When he retired from playing in 1950 he became a coach for Chuck Dressen, his Oakland manager who took over the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1955 Dressen left the Dodgers and was hired to manage the Washington Senators, taking Lavagetto with him. When Dressen was fired by the Senators in 1957, Lavagetto replaced him, and in 1960 moved with the team to Minnesota where they became the Twins. In 1961 he was fired. He went on to coach with the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants.

Roxie Lawson
Alfred Voyle Lawson (1906-1977)

Speaking of Damon Runyon, Lawson reminds me of a line from a Guys and Dolls song ... What's playing at the Roxy? This Roxie was an American League pitcher who spent all or parts of nine seasons in the major leagues, first with Cleveland, then Detroit and the St. Louis Browns.

In 1935 he made only four starts for the Tigers, but threw two shutouts, one of them against Boston and Hall of Famer Lefty Grove. In 1937 Lawson was 18-7 with Detroit, but his earned run average was 5.26, which isn't quite as bad as it may look because teams scored runs in bunches that season.

His last season was 1940. Lawson's lifetime record was 47-39. Those two 1935 shutouts were the only ones he had. Overall, he walked nearly twice as many hitters as he struck out.

Hilly Layne
Ivoria Hillis (Tony) Layne (1918- )

This third baseman would be more memorable if he'd been known by his first name. I'd never seen Ivoria before.

Layne played 13 games for the Washington Senators in 1941, then returned for a two-year stint (1944-45) during World War II. In 107 games he batted .264, with one home run, which doesn't mean much because nobody had many home runs playing for Washington where the home field was a pitcher's paradise. The Senators managed to ht just 10 home runs in the 154 games they played at Griffith Stadium during the 1944-45 seasons. Opponents were a little better – they hit 19.

Like several on my list, Layne fared much better in the minor leagues where players remained active well into their 30s, often their early 40s. Layne played 1,796 minor league games, compiling a lifetime batting average of .335. In 1947 he led the Pacific Coast League when he batted .367 for Seattle. Still ative eight years later, Layne hit .391 for the Lewiston Broncs of the Northwest League. By then Layne was a player-manager.

Poosh 'em Up Lazzeri
Anthony Michael Lazzeri (1903-1946)

Again, it's the nickname – and I don't mean Tony – that calls attention to Lazzeri. Oh, the fact he was a New York Yankee alongside Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig AND Joe DiMaggio helps. But only Lazzeri was called Poosh 'Em Up.

He got that nickname from fans – many of them Italian – who urged Lazzeri to "push them up", which meant to advance the runners with a hit. The second baseman had a well-deserved reputation as a good clutch hitter; seven times he drove in more than 100 runs for the Yankees.

Lazzeri was the first professional baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season, but he did it in the Pacific Coast League in 1925. He played for the Salt Lake Bees that season and took advantage of the rarefied air and a 200-game schedule. He scored 202 runs and drove in 222.

As a Yankee, Lazzeri took a back seat to his more famous teammates, but the second baseman had his moments. On May 24, 1936 he hit two grandslams in one game. His 11 runs batted in that day set an American League record.

His lifetime batting average was .292. He hit 178 home runs and had 1,191 RBI. He's in the Hall of Fame.

According to a 1993 story in the Salt Lake Tribune, Lazzeri's nickname originated in that city during that 1925 season. One of the player's biggest fans was Cesare Rinetti, co-owner of a downtown restaurant, who made sure Lazzeri and his young bride were well fed.

It was during a game against Seattle that Rinetti shouted out, "Poosh 'em up, Tony!" And spectators around him picked up the chant. Lazzeri responded with a home run. Salt Lake sportswriter John Derks learned of the incident and wrote a story about it. Overnight Lazzeri had himself a nickname.

Well, actually ... again, according to the Salt Lake Tribune ... the player's last name in those days was spelled Lazerre (sometimes LaZerre). Hal Schindler, who wrote the 1993 article, said " ...somehow, someway, his named picked up a 'z,' dropped an 'r' and turned an 'e' into an 'i' to become Lazzeri."

"Poosh 'em Up" played his entire career with epilepsy. He died of a heart attack in 1946. He was only 42.

Bevo LeBourveau
DeWitt Wiley LeBourveau (1894-1947)

LeBourveau was an excellent hitter from the left side of the plate, but had problems in the field. He put in four seasons with the Philadlephia Phillies (1919-22). His .911 fielding average in 1921 was the worst in the league among outfielders.

He returned to Philadelphia in 1929 to play 12 games for the Athletics in 1929.

His lifetime major league batting average was unspectacular (.275), but it was a far different story in the minor leagues where he played 1,584 games and batted .349, twice winning the American Association batting championship as a member of the Toledo Mud Hens (.377 in 1926; .380 in 1930).

Tom Letcher
Thomas F. Letcher (1868-19??)

It's not his last name that drew me to this outfielder, so there won't be any Letcher jokes. No, what jumps out are the three nicknames for an outfielder who played only six games – in 1891 for Milwaukee of the American Association. You can call Letcher Grandpa, you can call him Uncle Tom, or you can call him Old Emergency Number One. Eventually you could call him a missing person because he seems to have disappeared after the turn of the century. According to a 2003 report by the biographical research committee of the Society for American Baseball Research, Letcher left a trail through Canada, then dropped completely out of sight. He died, obviously, but nobody knows the where, when or how.

Lucky Lohrke
Jack Wayne Lohrke (1924- )

Lohrke was an infielder whose at bats decreased every season after his rookie year (1947) when he played 111 games at third base for the New York Giants, hitting .240 with 11 home runs. He played five seasons for the Giants, two more with the Philadelphia Phillies.

However, Lohrke remains famous among old-time baseball fans because of his nickname – and the incredible story that goes with it. After his service in World War II, Lohrke was to fly from Camp Kilmer, NJ, to California, but a colonel bumped him from the flight. That plane crashed, killing everyone aboard.

But Lohrke's luck wasn't over. He started the 1946 season with the Spokane Indians of the Western International League. The team was enroute by bus from Spokane to Bremerton, Washington, a 300-mile trip. About halfway there, the team stopped in Ellensburg for dinner, as planned. A message was waiting for Lohrke: he was to get back to Spokane any way he could because he was being called up to the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League.

While Lohrke was hitchhiking to Spokane, the team bus headed for Bremerton, but missed a curve and went off the road. Eight Spokane players were killed, along with the driver. It was the worst such disaster in minor league history.

Charlie Loudenslager
Charles Edward Loudenslager (1881-1933)

Loudenslager played a few innings at second base on April 15, 1904 for the Brooklyn Superbas, as the Dodgers were then nicknamed. Loudenslager handled one chance in the field and went hitless in two at bats.

Of interest to me (and perhaps no one else), Loudenslager's first professional team was the Syracuse Stars of the New York State League (1902-03). After his day in Brooklyn, he reported to his hometown Baltimore Orioles of the Eastern League, and later played for such minor league teams as the Rochester Bronchos, Jersey City Skeeters and Utica Utes.

As a Baltimore native, it seems likely he was a member of the family for whom Loudenslager Hill was named. American defenses set up along the top of that hill helped deter the British in the famous 1814 Battle of Baltimore that inspired Francis Scott Key's poem, 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' that later became our national anthem.

Loudenslager died in 1933 and is buried at Louden Park National Cemetery in Baltimore. I've also seen it spelled Loudon, but my hunch is that it is either on property that at one time belonged to the Loudenslager family or was named in their honor. Again, just a hunch.

Peanuts Lowrey
Harry Lee Lowrey (1918-1986)

Lowrey was a 5-foot-8 outfielder, third baseman and excellent pinch hitter in the National League, playing mostly with the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals (1942-55). In 1952 he had seven straight pinch hits.

His lifetime batting average was .273. He was a contact hitter who was difficult to strike out. In 1945 he drove in a career high 89 runs in helping the Cubs win the pennant. In the World Series – won in seven games by Detroit – Lowrey had nine hits and a .310 batting average.

After he retired as a player in 1955 Lowrey became a coach.

He received his nickname in infancy after his grandfather chortled, "Why, he's no bigger than a peanut!"

Lowrey was born in Culver City, CA, where his grandfather's ranch sometimes was used as a location for the "Our Gang" comedies. That's how Peanuts Lowrey became a child actor in several films. Lowrey continued to get bit parts in films as an adult. Among his credits: "Strategic Air Command" and "The Winning Team." The latter, a biography of Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Alexander, starred future president Ronald Reagan. Lowrey was the player in the film whose throw smacked the base-running Alexander in the forehead, resulting in an injury that led to problems that plagued Alexander the rest of his career.

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