Scooter Rizzuto
Philip Francis Rizzuto (1917-2007)

Scooter Rizzuto, aka Phil, was a New York Yankee shortstop (1941-42; 1946-56) who proved that small guys (5-foot-6) can come up huge.

His lifetime average was .273, but he was an invaluable cog in the Yankee machine and a big reason the team made it to the World Series nine times in Rizzuto's 13 seasons. He hit over .300 twice, his rookie season (1941) and in 1950 when he posted these career bests – average (.324), hits (200), doubles (36) and runs (125). He's a member of baseball's Hall of Fame.

In retirement he became the voice of Yankee baseball whose excited "Holy cow!!" became his trademark utterance. He also was the obnoxiously loud and over-enthusiastic spokesman for THE MONEY STORE!!!!! In that regard he was the forerunner of the even more obnoxiously loud Billy Mays, the Oxi Clean pusher who now has his own TV commercial empire.

Preacher Roe
Elwin Charles Roe (1915- )

Roe pitched in one game in 1938 with the St. Louis Cardinals, then departed the majors until 1944 when he won 13 games for second-place Pittsburgh. The Pirates got worse each year for the next three seasons, hitting the basement in 1947 when Roe's record was 4-15. At that point his career record stood at 34 wins, 47 losses.

Then – hallelujah! – he was traded to Brooklyn where a new Preacher Roe emerged. As a Dodger (1948-54), Roe won 93 games, lost only 37. His best season was 1951 when he posted a 22-3 record.

According to 'The Ultimate Baseball Book', Roe said, "I got three pitches. My change, my change off my change, and my change off my change off my change." Later he admitted that when he moved to Brooklyn he picked up a fourth pitch: a spitball.

Brooklyn – and Ebbet's Field – provided Roe with an unforgettable moment in 1953 when the pitcher hit his only major league home run. Roe wasn't simply regarded as a poor hitter, even for a pitcher; he was one of the worst hitters ever to swing a bat in the majors. Not quite as bad as Bob Buhl, but close.

When Roe went deep, it elicited a chuckle from Red Barber, the famous Dodgers announcer, who told the radio audience, "Well, old number 28 has hit a home run and we'll never hear the end of it, folks!" Roe had only two other hits all season in 57 at bats.

In 1954 Roe retired to West Plains, MO, where he ran a grocery store and coached youth baseball. In 1992, at the age of 77, Roe decided it was finally time he tried a new sport. He started playing golf.

Cookie Rojas
Octavio Victor Rojas (1939- )

Primarily a second baseman, Rojas managed to play every position in at least one game during his 16-year career. He played mostly for the Philadelphia Phillies and Kansas City Royals, but put in brief stints with Cincinnati and the St. Louis Cardinals. He managed for awhile after he retired.

It's not like I'm a sucker for every Cookie who comes along – well, maybe I am – but I always rooted for Rojas. Oh, he, too, was Chris Bermanized on ESPN: Cookie Days of Wine and Rojas.

Phil Roof
Phillip Anthony Roof (1941- )

Phil (up on the) Roof was proof guys who can catch often stick around forever. His lifetime batting average was a puny .215, but Roof enjoyed a 15-year major league career, playing for several teams, including the Athletics (Kansas City 1966-67; Oakland 1968-69) and the Minnesota Twins (1971-75). His much younger brother Gene was a National League outfielder for 48 games spread over three seasons (1981-83). After retiring as a player, Roof became a successful manager in the minor leagues.

Goody Rosen
Goodwin George Rosen (1912-1994)

Outfielder Rosen, a native of Toronto, played three seasons (1937-39) with the Brooklyn Dodgers, then dropped down to Syracuse of the International League where he became one of the outstanding players in Chiefs history.

In 1944 he went back to the Dodgers and in 1945 had his career year – a .325 batting average, 197 hits, 126 runs scored, and a spot on the National League All-Star team. He was the first Canadian-born player so honored.

In 1946 the Dodgers sold Rosen to the New York Giants. He batted .281, then decided to retire.

In 1984 he was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

Edd Roush
Edd J Roush (1893-1988)

Roush remains the only Edd I've ever come across. That was the first name he was born with. Unlike Harry S Truman, whose middle initial stood for nothing in particular, the J in Roush's name stands for his grandfathers, Jerry and Joseph.

Roush, a Hall of Fame outfielder since 1962, started with the Chicago White Sox in 1913, played two years in the doomed Federal League, and briefly with the New York Giants, who traded him to Cincinnati along with two other future Hall of Famers, pitcher Christy Mathewson and infielder Bill McKechnie, who made it to Cooperstown as a manager. In return the Giants received Buck Herzog and Red Killefer.

Roush paid off quickly for the Reds, leading the National League in hitting in 1917 and 1919. From 1917 to 1926 his lowest average was .323. And as proof big bats don't produce long hits, Roush hit only 68 home runs despite using a 48-ounce bat, one of the heaviest in major league history.

And if Roush looks a bit gruff in the photo ... well, that was his reputation. Some called him mean, obstinate, downright unreasonable. He hated spring training and held out every season, taking his sweet time negotiating a contract so he could stay home longer. He held out so long in 1922 that he didn't sign his Cincinnati contract until July. In 1929 he hit .324 with the New York Giants, but when he tried his stalling tactics in 1930, the Giants just let him sit out the entire season. Roush finished back in Cincinnati in 1931, his last season.

Schoolboy Rowe
Lynwood Thomas Rowe (1910-1961)

In 1925, at the age of 15, Lynwood Rowe had the opportunity to pitch against a team that included some former major league players. He not only won that game, but earned a nickname when one of the embarrassed opponents grumbled, "Beaten by a schoolboy."

Nearly 6-foot-5, Rowe was not your ordinary schoolboy. Years later he would be a good-hitting, right-handed pitcher for the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies and make a brief appearance with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1942.

He arrived in the majors in 1933, winning seven games, and the following season his 24-8 record led Detroit into the World Series. (The Tiger staff included two other pitchers on my list of favorite names – Elden Auker and Firpo Marberry.)

Rowe, 24-years-old at the time, was interviewed that season on Eddie Cantor's network radio program, and during the interview Rowe said he'd like to be a radio announcer, which prompted Cantor to turn the pitcher loose on a microphone. Rowe played announcer for a few seconds, then, in a low voice, asked "How'm I doin', Edna, honey?"

He was talking to his high school sweetheart and fiance, Edna Mary Skinner. Cantor knew a good thing when he heard it, so the comedian made it a point to say "How'm I doin', Edna?" at least once in every broadcast from then on.

So when Rowe pitched Game Two of the 1934 World Series, he was taunted throughout by the opposing St. Louis Cardinals who yelled the phrase over and over. It didn't do the Cardinals much good – Rowe went 12 innings to beat St. Louis, 3-2. Later the Cardinals beat Rowe, 4-3, in Game Six. When the Cardinals erupted in the third inning of Game Seven, Rowe was brought in to relieve starter Elden Auker, but couldn't put out the fire, giving up two hits and a run, and St. Louis went on to crush Detroit, 11-0. However, Rowe came out a winner: He and Edna were married shortly thereafter.

Rowe won 19 games each of the next two seasons, but the best he could do afterward was a 16-3 record in 1940. He hit .300 or better three different seasons, with a high of four home runs in 1943 with Philadelphia.

Muddy Ruel
Herold (cq) Dominic Ruel (1896-1963)

After Moe Berg, Muddy Ruel, also a catcher, might have had baseball's brightest mind. He played with several American League teams (1915-34), was a battery mate of the great Walter Johnson in Washington, and managed St. Louis Browns in 1947.

He participated in baseball's most tragic game, on August 17, 1920, when Ruel was with the New York Yankees. He was catching when Carl Mays threw the pitch that hit and fatally injured batter Ray Chapman, the Cleveland Indians shortstop, the only major league player ever killed during a game. According to Ruel, the pitch got away from Mays and Chapman somehow never saw it coming.

Early in his career Ruel earned a law degree from Washington University of St. Louis and became an expert in baseball law. For awhile he was a special assistant to baseball commissioner Albert "Happy" Chandler.

As for his nickname, Ruel supposedly got that as a youngster for creating a game called "mudball," using balls he made out of ... what else? The article didn't say whether mudball was more like baseball or a snowball fight.

Jae-Kuk Ryu
Jae-Kuk Ryu (1983- )

This South Korean native became famous – infamous, actually – long before he made it to the major leagues in 2006 as a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs.

In 2003 Ryu was with the minor league Daytona (FL) Cubs. On April 21 of that year, while standing in the outfield at Daytona Beach's Jackie Robinson Ballpark, Ryu did something incredibly stupid, something witnessed mostly by members of the Port St. Lucie Mets who were taking batting practice.

Seems Ryu had spotted an osprey perched on a 25-foot utility crossbar – and decided to throw a baseball at it. His first throw missed the bird. Some Mets players noticed and yelled for Ryu to stop, but the pitcher threw again ... and again ... and again. His fourth attempt hit the osprey in the head, knocking it to the ground.

The clueless Ryu, 19 years old at the time, found himself in deep doo-doo, starting with a tongue-lashing by Mets trainer Chad Efron who confronted the pitcher.

Ryu's troubles worsened when the incident was made public. Two days later he was shipped out to the Cubs' farm team in the Lansing, MI. (That team is known as the Lansing Lugnuts. Talk about your great names.)

"There's no way Jae Kuk Ryu could have stayed here (Daytona Beach) and played ball," said Lt. Bill Hightower, who investigated the incident for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservtion Commission, which charged the pitcher with a second-degree misdeameaner for the attack.

When the bird died, six days after being hit, the public outcry increased. Death threats were made, though by this time Ryu was tucked away in Lansing.

Eventually Ryu and the wildlife commission reached an agreement by which the pitcher did 100 hours of public service. Ryu tried to buy his way out of the public service, at $10 per hour, but a judge said no.

As for his on-field performance, Ryu pitched well for Lansing, where he had spent time the previous year. He worked his way up the Cub farm system until in 2006 he reached Iowa of the Pacific Coast League (see Note, right). From there he was summoned to Chicago. He got into 10 games for the Cubs, but in the off-season the team traded him to the Tampa Bay Devils for two minor leaguers. He made just 17 appearances for Tampa Bay, losing two of his three decisioins while posting a poor 7.33 earned run average.

But from now until forever, wherever his travels may take him, Jae Kuk Ryu will be known as the osprey killer.

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