Big Daddy from Cincinnati
A couple of months ago I was at a Sonics game with a friend and we heard forward Danny Fortson tagged with the nickname “Big Daddy from Cincinnati”. My friend and I exchanged a look of disbelief. Big Daddy from Cincinnati? That’s the best they could come up with? Regardless, it got me thinking about Seattle sports nicknames.
First a couple of ground rules:
• Chris Berman names like Ricky “Running” Watters do not count, hopefully for obvious reasons.
• The Mariners lame attempt to make their players more fan-friendly doesn’t count either (Lopi, Booney, Ichi, Cammy, etc.).
The Classics (Top 10)
1. The Kid - Ken Griffey, Jr.
2. Reign Man - Shawn Kemp
3. The Glove - Gary Payton
4. Bone - Jay Buhner
5. The Big Unit - Randy Johnson
6. The Boz - Brian Bozworth
7. A-Rod - Alex Rodriguez
8. Big Smooth - Sam Perkins
9. Sweet Lou - Lou Piniella
10. The Dawgfather - Don James
Good, but not quite a classic:
The Hammer - Ken Hamlin. Perhaps the most perfect nickname for a safety. The Hammer was laying the hits today!
Big Paper Daddy - Ricky Pierce. Doesn’t really make sense, but its fun to say, much like most of Kevin Calabro’s nicknames.
X-man - Xavier McDaniel. Also went by X. Probably not even his mom has ever called him Xavier.
Big Richie - Richie Sexson. Also is sometimes referred to as Big Sexy, which is terrible.
Hendu - Dave Henderson. Obviously a basic nickname, but he gets on this list for having the license plate on his early 80’s white Corvette read “HENDU 42″. True story.
Montlake Jake - Jake Locker. Has the potential to become an all-time classic, just like the player.
Bad, but were unfortunately popular:
Little Joey Cora - Joey Cora. It was impossible for Rick Rizzs to refer to Joey Cora any other way.
The Thang - Kazuhiro Sasaki’s splitter. Didn’t it always sound a little strange coming from a 70 year-old Dave Niehaus? I think it was an odd play on words, supposedly Kazu’s grip on the splitter looked like it had fangs.
Lesser Knowns:
Natural Wonder - Rick Mirer. After his rookie year in 1992, I saw a poster of Rick Mirer dropping back to pass with a landscape of Mt. Rainier in the background and this nickname written below it.
Tez-Rex - Cortez Kennedy. Again, it was 1992 and I think this one must have been influenced by Jurassic Park. That’s the only explanation I can think of. Or maybe Cortez just had short arms.
The Fiddler - Vincent Askew. Sonic bench player in the mid-90’s (see photo). I have no idea how he got this nickname and I don’t want to spoil it by checking.
The Quiet Man - Rashard Lewis. Unfortunately Calabro stopped using this as ‘Shard become more vocal over the last couple of years.
Related posts:
