Berman Tank Flattens Notion of Nicknames

They don’t have nicknames like they used to in baseball. That’s what you keep hearing, but nobody does anything about it. Except Chris Berman.

Berman is the ESPN announcer who makes up his own nicknames when doing the baseball highlights. It’s all a little outrageous, but it does get your attention. Some of his specials:

Gary (Hospital) Ward, Vance (Common) Law, Storm (Trooper) Davis, Ed (Merrill) Lynch, Jerry (Rolls) Reuss, Manny (Kingston) Trillo, George (Taco) Bell, Bruce (Eggs) Benedict, Kevin (Largemouth) Bass, Terry (Swimming) Puhl and Bob (Intentional) Walk.

Then there’s Jimmy (Francis Scott) Key, Randy (Bird In the Hand) Bush, John (Private) Tudor, Bill (Doran) Doran, Ruppert (Along Came) Jones, Jose (Can You See) Cruz, Mario (Scotch And) Soto, Julio (Generalissimo) Franco, Ken (Good Morning, Mr.) Phelps, Otis (Perfectly Clear) Nixon and Rick (Really Big) Schu.

Then, a little more off the wall, are Oddibe (Young Again) McDowell, Tom (Leave It To) Seaver, Rick (Innocent) Lysander, Bruce (Three Piece) Sutter, Ron (Born In the U.S.) Cey, Butch (Oil And) Wynegar and Eric (Win, Place And) Show.

And finally, strictly out of left field, is Brian (10) Downing (Street).

Trivia Time: In a game between the Kansas City A’s and Washington Senators in 1960, who was the A’s player who hit into an all-Cuban triple play? (Answer below.)

Would-you-believe-it dept.: Gerry Faust, in four-plus seasons as head football coach at Notre Dame, already has lost as many games as Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy did in a combined 24 seasons.

Faust is 26-23-1. Rockne, in 13 seasons, was 105-12-5. Leahy, in 11 seasons, was 87-11-9.

Said 7-1 Bill Cartwright of the New York Knicks after playing against 7-7 rookie Manute Bol of the Washington Bullets: “He’s easily among the three toughest to score over, along with Ralph Sampson and Mark Eaton. You’re just not gonna go over him. You’ve gotta go through him. It’ll take a trip around the league for everyone to find that out.

“Fortunately, he’s so light. If he was heavy, we’d all be in trouble.”

Wait a Minute: Cincinnati Manager Pete Rose says of Dave Parker’s 1985 season: “I’ve played with a lot of great players in a lot of years. None have had as consistent a season as Parker.”

Going into the season finale today, Parker is batting .312 with 33 home runs, 124 RBIs and 86 runs scored. In 1977, George Foster of Cincinnati, a teammate of Rose, batted .320 with 52 home runs, 149 RBIs and 124 runs scored.

19 Years Ago Today: On Oct. 6, 1966, 20-year-old Jim Palmer of Baltimore became the youngest pitcher to pitch a World Series shutout as the Orioles beat the Dodgers, 6-0, in the second game at Dodger Stadium.

Sandy Koufax, in the last game of his career, was the loser, although he gave up only one earned run. The Dodgers made six errors, three by Willie Davis in one inning.

Trivia Answer: Outfielder Whitey Herzog. With two runners on, he lined to pitcher Pedro Ramos, who threw to first baseman Julio Becquer for the second out. Becquer threw to shortstop Jose Valdivielso who recorded the third out at second.

Quotebook

Maurice Lucas of the Lakers, on his style of play: “I’m a blue-collar worker. I don’t punch in, I punch out.”