Duster Mails
John Walter Mails (1895-1974)

Sometimes called Duster the Great, pitcher Mails won but 32 games in seven big league seasons. One senses there may be more to his story than can be read in the statistics.

He broke in with Brooklyn in 1915, losing his only decision. Same thing in 1916. He was out of the majors until 1920 when he joined pennant-bound Cleveland in time to win seven games with no losses. He faced his old team, the Dodgers, in the World Series, pitched 6-2/3 innings of scoreless ball in relief in a losing cause in Game Two, then pitched a shutout in Game Six.

He went 14-8 in 1921 ... and suddenly didn't have it anymore. He had one last shot, with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1925, when he split 14 decisions and had a 4.60 earned run average, which wasn't good, though it was only slightly higher than the team ERA. He made just one more appearance in the majors, with the Cardinals in 1926, walking a batter and giving up two hits in one inning of relief, though the run that lost the game for him was unearned.

He was called Duster for his tendency to brush back hitters. And he was Duster the Great in the minor leagues, winning 226 games in 17 seasons.

Candy Maldonado
Candido Maldonado y Guadarrama (1960- )

Outfielder Maldonado played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants in the 1980s, putting up unimpressive stats.

My fondness for his name is srictly due to memories of a voice-changing musician-comedian named Candy Candido who was featured on Jimmy Durante's radio show and popularlized the line, "I'm feeling mighty low," delivered in a voice so deep it didn't seem humanly possible.

Heinie Manush
Henry Emmett Manush (1901-1971)

Manush was a Hall of Fame outfielder for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators who also made brief stops in Boston, Pittsburgh and Booklyn near the end of his career.

He had a lifetime batting average of.330; was the American League batting champ in 1926 (.378); in 1928 had 241 base hits (and another .378 average).

His older brother, Frank, played 23 games with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1908.

It's difficult to explain my fondness for the name Heinie Manush; I guess it's because Manush played in one of the leagues I conducted with my Ethan Allen All-Star Baseball Game. Or maybe because his name sounds like one of my wife's favorite foods: baba ghanoush.

Rabbit Maranville
Walter James Vincent Maranville (1891-1954)

This tiny (5-foot-4 ... 5-foot-5, tops) shortstop-second baseman was one of baseball's most popular players for 23 seasons. He broke in with the Boston Braves in 1912, played for the Miracle Braves that won the 1914 pennant and swept the favored Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series. He later played in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Brooklyn and St. Louis, before returning to Boston. His entire career was in the National League.

He managed the Cubs for part of the 1925 season, later managed minor league teams, occasionally playing until he was nearly 50 years old.

He is credited with originating the basket catch that many years later was a Willie Mays trademark. Maranville reportedly kept his arms at his sides until the last second before letting the ball drop into his glove, about waist high.

Firpo Marberry
Frederick Marberry (1898-1976)

He was perhaps the first great relief pitcher, appearing in 45-or-more games in eight different seasons. He played for the Washington Senators (1923-32) and later the Detroit Tigers.

Marberry got his nickname because Senator teammates thought he resembled Argentine heavyweight Luis Firpo who had attracted attention in 1923 when he fought champion Jack Dempsey in one of the craziest title fights ever. Firpo knocked Dempsey down early in the first round, but Dempsey got up and knocked Firpo down seven times – that's right, seven times. Firpo not only got up each time, but knocked Dempsey down again, this time out of the ring. Sportswriters helped Dempsey back into the ring, or else Firpo might have become champion. As it was, Dempsey ended the fight in the second round by knocking Firpo down for good.

As for Firpo Marberry, he won 147 games (against 89 losses) in his 14-year major league career. Most of those decisions were in games he started. His best season was 1929 when he had a 19-12 record. He started 26 games that season, with 23 relief appearances.

Pepper Martin
John Leonard Roosevelt Martin (1904-1965)

His teammate and (later) manager Frankie Frisch was one of the few people to call him John, everyone else called him Pepper, a name given him by Blake Harper, a minor league general manager who liked Martin's pep-filled attitude and excitement.

In the fall he played professional football for the Hominy Indians in Oklahoma's Osage County. His running style earned him another nickname: The Wild Hoss of the Osage.

Martin spent his entire playing career with the St. Louis Cardinal organization. He was a lightly regarded minor leaguer until he became a Cardinal outfielder in 1931, hitting .300. But it was the '31 World Series that made Pepper Martin a household name. He had 12 hits, stole five bases, drove in five runs and led the Cards to victory in seven games over the Philadelphia Athletics.

Martin was one of baseball's most colorful characters, a fellow who toyed awhile with midget racing cars. It was said he believed the only way God intended man to travel was in a pickup truck with a shotgun hung crosswise behind the driver's head and a brace of bird dogs in the rear.

The Cardinals of the 1930s were known as The Gas House Gang, and Martin was the acknowledged leader, also organizing a musical group called Pepper Martin's Mudcat Band comprised of several teammates.

Bake McBride
Arnold Ray McBride (1949- )

An outfielder (1973-82) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phils and, finally, the Cleveland Indians, McBride, broke in with five straight .300-plus seasons and finished his 11-year career with a lifetime .299 average.

The nickname Bake is short for Shake and Bake, which seemed to fit McBride's personality and playing style. His Afro seemed to explode from his cap, which earned him a place on everyone's all-hair baseball team.

Tug McGraw
Frank Edwin McGraw (1944-2004)

McGraw was one of baseball's top relief pitchers for the New York Mets (1965-74) and the Philadelphia Phillies (1975-84). Long after he retired it was revealed that he had had an affair and fathered a son who went on to become a country music superstar – Tim McGraw.

The pitcher's nickname was coined by his mother when McGraw was an infant. Seems he used to tug when she breast-fed him.

McGraw was a fan favorite in New York and Philadelphia. He is credited with coining the phrase "You gotta believe" to describe the New York Mets on their way to the 1973 National League championship.

Like Yogi Berra, McGraw said a lot of things that became popular baseball quotes. Among them: "I have no trouble with the twelve inches between my elbow and my palm. It's the seven inches between my ears that's bent." And "Kids should practice autographing baseballs. This is a skill that's often overlooked in Little League."

Stuffy McInnis
John Phalen McInnis (1890-1960)

McInnis was a first baseman in what was dubbed "The $100,000 Infield" that remained intact four years (1911-1914) and helped make the Philadelphia Athletics the American League pennant winners three times during that period (with two World Series victories). The other members were Eddie Collins at second base, Jack Barry at shortstop and Frank "Home Run" Baker at third base. That's at least $100 million in talent in today's market.

Team owner and manager Connie Mack was notorious for selling off players who'd become too expensive, so that infield was broken up in 1915, though McInnis wasn't sold until 1918 when he wound up with the Boston Red Sox. He retired in 1926, returning the next year for a token appearance with the Philadelphia Phils. He had a lifetime batting average of .308 with 2,406 hits. As first basemen go, McInnis was rather small (5-foot-9), and, typical of players in the dead ball era, rarely hit a home run, having just 20 for his career.

Cal McLish
Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish (1925- )

McLish has one of the longest names in major league baseball history, three letters short of the 44 it takes to complete the given name of another player on my list, Bruno Betzel.

Frankly, it's the full McLish name that's interesting, but it takes awhile to commit it to memory. He was a pitcher who had 15 major league seasons, recording a modest 92 career wins against the same number of losses. His best season was with Cleveland in 1959 when he finished with a 19-8 record.

Bid McPhee
John Alexander McPhee (1859-1943)

McPhee is generally considered the best second baseman of the 19th century. He's also the last major league baseball player to field his position bare-handed, something he did until 1897. Who could blame him? Even without a glove he was had the best fielding percentage in the league nine times.

When you check his stats it seems odd that he bothered to make the change because in 1896, his last bare-handed year, he had a .978 fielding average, the highest ever for his position. Playing with a glove a season later, McPhee's fielding percentage dropped to .966, but he still led the league.

McPhee was born in Massena, NY, but his family moved to Illinois when he was a boy. It was in Ohio where he found his fame, starting his professional baseball career in Akron, then spending 20 years with the Cincinnati Red Stockings of the American Association and the Cincinnati Reds of the National League, managing the Reds for two seasons after he retired as a player.

McPhee stood five-foot-eight and weighed about 150 pounds. He walked a lot, scored a bunch of runs (1,684 for his career), and was often among league leaders in triples. In 1886 he also led the American Association in home runs, with seven. His lifetime batting average was .272, though he had three .300 seasons.

McPhee played during baseball's formative years and switching from fielding bare-handed to wearing a glove was only one of several adjustments he and other were forced to make. When he was an American Association rookie in 1882 pitchers threw underhand from 50 feet away, a change made in 1881. Previously pitchers were only 45 feet from home plate. Batters didn't get a walk until the pitcher had thrown seven balls out of the strike zone.

The game tinkered with its rules almost yearly until, by the late 1890s, it closely resembled what is played today.

My favorite tidbit in reading about McPhee was found on one of my favorite websites, www.baseballlibrary.com, which said that in 1882 the American Association introduced color-coded uniforms to help fans learn players' positions. McPhee's second base uniform was orange and black. The idea didn't go over well with players who referred to their uniforms as "clown suits."

McPhee died in San Diego in 1943 at age 83. He passed into obscurity until 2000 when the veterans committee of the Hall of Fame rediscovered the great second baseman and gave him the recognition that was long overdue. Now he has his own plaque in Cooperstown.

But how did John McPhee become known as Bid? That, unfortunately, remains a puzzle.

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