All-Around Athletes

Hey baseball fans!

As I promised in my  Booming Batters  post, today I will be blogging about some of the greatest all-around athlete nicknames in baseball history. Hope you enjoy:

Stan the Man -  Stan Musial
From 1942-1963 with the St. Louis Cardinals, Musial had  one of the best careers of all time . With 475 homers,  3,630 hits, and a batting average of .331, Stan helped the Cards to five pennants and three World Series championships. He is considered one of the best outfielders in the game offensively, and was always “the Man” for the job.

The Say Hey Kid -  Willie Mays
From 1951-1973 with the New York/San Fransisco Giants and the New York Mets, Willie probably did have the best overall career of all time. 660 homers. 3,283 hits. 338 stolen bases. A lifetime .302 batting average. 1,903 RBIs. A total five tool player.  Wow!! Now that’s a career!!!  He was dubbed “The Say Hey Kid” because people would say after he hit a homer or made his famous basket catch: ‘ Say ,  hey , did you see what that  kid  just did?’ Along with those accomplishments, he also helped his teams to four pennants and one World Series Championship.  He had probably the most famous catch ever too (see picture).  He was just plain amazing.

Charlie Hustle -  Pete Rose
With the most career base hits at 4,256, Pete should be in the Hall of Fame. But, during his career, he gambled for his team to win, which is against baseball rules, so he was banned from baseball. He did have a great career though with the Reds, Phillies, and Expos from 1963-1986. He had over 200 hits 10 times, and helped the Big Red Machine and the 1980 Phils to five pennants and four World Series wins (one against the Yanks in ’76). He was called “Charlie Hustle” because he would give it his all on every single play. What do you think: should he be in the Hall even though he gambled during his career, or should he stay out? Send me a comment and tell me what you think about one of the most controversial careers in baseball.

Mr. October -  Reggie Jackson
In a career from 1967-1987 with the A’s, O’s, Yanks, and Angels, Reggie became Mr. October because of his excellent post-season play. In the 1977 Word Series against the Dodgers when he was on the Yankees, he hit five homers in six games, with three in the finale. It is considered one of the best World Series performances in history. In 27 World Series games, he batted .357!!! With 563 career homers, he is also considered one of the greatest power hitters the game has ever seen.  He got into the Hall of Fame as a first ballot member, but, sadly, he wasn’t inducted in October.

Iron Horse -  Lou Gehrig
He is called the Iron Horse because his energy and strength was at the same level as a locomotive.  He is also famous because he played in 2,130 consecutive games.  Lou was great. From 1923-1939 with the Yankees, Gehrig hit 493 homers, 2,721 hits, and had a lifetime batting average of .340. He helped the Yankees to seven pennants and as many World Series Championships. Although his career ceased because of a disease called ALS, he is probably the  best first baseman of all time . Here’s a good question about the Yankees and ALS: Who’s the only other Yank to die of this nerve-affecting disease? The answer is sadly  Catfish Hunter . Still, the disease is nicknamed “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”.

Well, there you have it, some of the best all-around nicknames of all time. This will be the last nickname-pertaining blog I will be doing. I’m not doing a funny nicknames blog, because those nicknames aren’t earned, they’re just given.  Thanks for reading and have a very happy new year!

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.