Booming Batters

Hey baseball fans!

Now that I’ve blogged about Proficient Pitchers nicknames ( part one  and  part two ), it’s time for the hitting nicknames. Here they are:

The Splendid Splinter -  Ted Williams
Ted’s goal as a baseball player was that when he walked down a street, a dad would say to his son: ‘Son, there’s the best hitter that ever lived.’ He accomplished that. Big time. Using his “splinter” (bat), he became a “splendid” hitter from 1939-1960 (missing 1943-1945 because of military service) with the Red Sox. He hit .344 lifetime, had 521 career homers, 1,839 RBIs, and he hit .406 in 1941. In his last career at-bat, he used his “splinter splendidly” by hitting a home run. In the ’41 All Star Game, one of his 17, he hit a walk-off homer. Now that’s what I call hitting.

The Big Hurt -  Frank Thomas
Called “The Big Hurt” because of his unbelievable power, Frank Thomas brought fear to every pitcher he faced. He hit 521 homers, had 1,704 RBIs, and he batted .301 in his career. From 1990-2008 with the White Sox, A’s, and Blue Jays, he went to 5 All Star Games, and won 2 MVP Awards. Thomas  was injury-prone, so he missed a lot of games, but still had great stats. That proves how good of a hitter he was.

Hammerin’ Hank -  Hank Aaron
From 1954-1976 with the Braves and Brewers, Hank Aaron was awesome. 755 career homers: second all time, 2,297 RBIs: first all time, 3,771 career hits: third all time. He had such great numbers that the best all around hitters in the AL and NL are now given the Hank Aaron Award. That’s how good of a player Hammerin’ Hank was. Just that good.

The Sultan of Swat -  Babe Ruth
The Babe was the best. He is the best player to play baseball and no one will top him. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a Yankees fan. He hit .342 lifetime, 714 career homers, 2,213 career RBIs. That’s impressive. Very. In 1927, he hit 60 homers, which at the time of his career (1914-1934 with the Red Sox, Yanks, and Braves) was the most hit in one season. Did you know he started out as a pitcher and he was great at that too?  He had to play the outfield due to a shortage of players during World War I, and the team then recognized his true hitting talent. A funny stat about Ruth is that Hank Aaron broke two records of his which were once career highs: homers and RBIs. Babe died in 1948 because of throat cancer, but his legacy will live on forever.

Those are some of the greatest nicknames pertaining to hitting of all time. My final nickname-themed blog will be posted in a few days and it will be all-around nicknames.

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Matt Nadel is a 13 year old baseball history kid blogger from Springfield, NJ who writes two baseball blogs under the name, Baseball with Matt.  Matt started  his original blog  back in April 2012 when he saw that a lot of his friends didn’t know anything about baseball history and he thought that a blog would be a fun way to educate kids and adults about baseball history.  After posting nearly 85 times, he was introduced to John Thorn, the official historian for MLB, and John liked Matt’s blog and arranged for Matt to have  his own Pro Blog on MLB , making Matt the youngest Pro blogger on MLB.com. You can also follow Matt on Twitter @BaseballwMatt.  Baseball with Matt is a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.