Taking the Field With ‘Oink,’ ‘Gumby’ & Co.

Mostly they go by names as common as Greg, Mike and Rick. Once in uniform, however, they are often called “Doghead,” “Honky Tonk Man” and “Rooster.”

The nicknames come courtesy of Loyola Marymount baseball Coach Dave Snow, who is often called something other than “Coach” when he isn’t around. Snow seems to have a knack for nicknaming players and apparently enjoys doing so, whether they like it or not.

“The guy who instigated the whole thing is Snow,” said assistant coach Bill Springman. “He’s been known for that for a long time. It’s just part of the mystique here at Loyola.”

That mystique includes some quirky variations. Like when Snow decided to refer to Tim Williams and Mike Jones without pronouncing the “s” in Williams or Jones, as in “Tim William” and “Mike Jone.” That gimmick snowballed until several players entered a game against UC Irvine with tape covering the letter “s” on their uniforms.

Reserve outfielder Rich Tricarico was responsible for that prank. And Tricarico, affectionately known for no apparent reason as “Edgar,” eventually got to Springman, who filled his dugout post as Bill “pringman.”

The dugout--where players rest on their posteriors, chew gum and tobacco, and philosophize on baseball in rudimentary fashion--seems the appropriate venue for all the name-calling.

“So many things go on in that dugout,” said first baseman Greg Wall. “We really got a bunch of loony tunes on this team.”

Leading the cast is Wall, a.k.a. “Doghead.” Wall, who received his nickname when he arrived at Loyola last fall, said that most nicknames stick with players and that no one really knows why he is referred to in canine terms.

Pitcher Scott Neill thinks he knows the reason behind Wall’s moniker. “His head is just gigantic,” said Neill. “He looks like a big, old, shaggy dog.”

Added reserve infielder Mike Testa: “He just looks like a puppy with his mouth open and his tongue hanging out.”

To legitimize Wall’s sobriquet, Robert Cannon--alias “Cool Breeze”--often barks from the dugout when Wall gets a hit. Said junior Rick Allen: “Cannon sounds like a serious German shepherd.”

Neill still goes by his childhood nickname of “Scooter.” Testa and Allen have secured more telling alter egos.

Snow renamed Testa “Nut” when he walked on the team as a freshman. Following an easy lead, Snow quickly called Testa’s brother “Bolt” when Joe Testa walked on this fall.

Mike Testa got a new nickname after Snow watched a televised wrestling match in a Tempe, Ariz., hotel hours before the final of a four-game, early-season series at Arizona State. The coach thought he discerned a likeness between his player and a wrestler called the Honky Tonk Man, who enters the ring with a guitar in his hand, looking vaguely like Elvis Presley. Testa was soon called “Honky Tonk Man” and began playing the part.

“I don’t think I’ve been called Mike since I’ve been here,” Testa quipped. “Sometimes when we’re behind, they’ll play Elvis over the loud speaker between innings, and I’ll start dancing around in the dugout. I have some moves and a few wiggles.”

And the guitar?

“He plays the fungo bat,” said Wall, “and when we went to Hawaii, we got him a ukulele and he played that.”

Allen has become known as “Rooster.” Neill said the nickname reflects Allen’s cockiness. Springman has a different account.

“Someone said Snow had just seen the movie, ‘Rooster Cockburn,’ ” Springman said, “and the next day when he saw Allen run down the (first-base) line, he yelled out, ‘Rooster.’ ”

Motion pictures clearly provide some inspiration for Snow.

“Ever watch ‘Animal House?’ ” asks Dean Jelmini, president of Loyola’s baseball booster organization, the Bullpen Club. “John Belushi just gives nicknames to all the new pledges in Delta House. That’s about the way Snow does it.”

Fraternal feelings result.

“It’s a unifying thing,” said Tarchione. “The nicknames definitely bring us closer together.”

Tarchione is a not-so-proud owner of two cognomens, one physical, one cinematic. Poor vision in one of his eyes precipitated his getting one contact lens as a freshman, for which Snow dubbed him “Cyclops.”

That stuck until this season when Snow caught the film, “Back to the Future,” prior to a mid-March contest at UC Santa Barbara. Snow equated geeky supporting character, George McFly, with Tarchione, who has a 3.5 grade-point average.

“It may be because of my hair, which is kind of long and tends to flop over like McFly’s,” said Tarchione, now known mostly as “McFly,” “but I don’t really know. McFly is kind of a dork and I’m not like that at all. I’ve been called a flake, but then this whole team is kind of flaky.”

Joining the Hollywood crowd is relief pitcher Kalani Bush, known as “Chief.”

“Kalani looks like that big Indian in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ ” said Neill.

Staff ace Steve Surico is called “Sleepy.” And junior catcher Mark Grafitti goes by “Gumby.”

“When he first came to practice,” said Springman, “it seemed like he was built like Gumby, with holes in his knees and a weird body.”

One of the team’s most acclaimed personalities is senior Don Sparks, or “Oink.” Sparks, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound third baseman who wears size 13 shoes, is renowned for being untidy.

“I’ll eat a candy bar and Coke before a game, and I leave my shoes in the middle of the dugout after I put on my cleats,” he said, “but you don’t know what’s going on until people tell you.”

Accordingly, backup third baseman Mike Case has been labeled “Piglet.” And the animal motif has been bestowed on Miah Bradbury, the 6-4, 205-pound starting catcher with curly hair somewhat like that of actor Gene Wilder. Bradbury is called “Big Bird.”

“I think he really is Big Bird,” Springman said. “When he disappears, I think he goes to tape a few episodes of ‘Sesame Street.’ ”

The best of the rest?

Second baseman Carl Fraticelli: “Taco.”

Pitcher Terry Seward: “Sewage.”

Catcher Kirk Mears: “Captain Kirk,” or “Vladimir.”

Paul Graves: “Graveyard.”

Outfielder Mark Tillman: “Chill Out.”