Athlete nicknames sure are lame these days

The Big Unit.

 

The last good nickname came in the mid-70's when former Central Michigan SID Fred Stabley, who was then working as a stringer while working his way through college, covered a basketball game in Lansing, MI and was so impressed with the all-around performance of one of the players and referred to him in print as MAGIC.

Thus, Ervin Magic Johnson was born.

 

Agree with all of this.

Nobody ever skated up to Gretzky and said, "hey, Great One, what's going on?" They called him Gretz.

The best and truest nicknames are the ones that actually have some creativity and stick to the person, so that everyone can actually call the person by that handle. Babe. Dizzy. Yogi. Rocket. Turk. Gump. Magic. Doctor J. Bronko. Fridge. Tiger.

 

The best on my beat is a kid currently nick-named, "Jazz."

And he doesn't play the sax.

Everything else is a riff of a name — always shortened. Guess I'd better get to work.

 

Okay, Highzie. ;D

 

Hockey also likes the name +r or +er (Ott = Otter, Young = Younger) or the chopping off at the first syllable chop for longer names (Morrison, Modano, Morrow all = Mo, Bertuzzi = Bert, Niedermayer = Nieds).

 

Brian Sutter was called Sudsy. That wasn't bad. One of my faves is Stan the Man Unusual for old Orioles reliever Don Stanhouse

 

Wardo's not even original. Lance Ward -- now toiling in the German League -- has been called that since his days with Red Deer Rebels in the mid-90s. Considering Cam Ward also came up through the Rebels I can see why he picked it up as well. Just stresses the unoriginality of it all.

Was actually talking about this at work tonight. The local Major Jr. team is horrible with nicknames. Kuemper is 'Kuemps', Deagle is 'Deags', and so forth. They are so lazy they don't even use the hockey prerequisite ie or y for most of their nicknames.

My favourite of all time was the Chicoutimi Cucumber for Georges Vezina, but for ones that were probably used every day Uke or Ukie for Terry Sawchuk. Also like Cujo, but then that has even been shortend to Cuj.

 

Dr. Hook

 

I believe Lemeiux's little-used nickname - in public anyway - is Ace. I remember reading about some rookie in the NHL who was trailing him in the play one night, called out "Ace" and Lemieux turned over the puck to him. After the game Mario credited the kid for doing his homework.

 

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE1DD133DF930A15756C0A9679C8B63&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

It was John Madden and if by "credited the kid," you mean "cross-checked the shit out of him," then, yes.

 

The "Ace" name is actually a good story, which was told to me by a friend who covered the Penguins.

They had some coach that the players all loathed. The coach tried to salvage his relationship by giving the players old school nicknames. His nickname for Lemieux was "Ace," and Lemieux hated the name as much as he hated the coach. So whenever a teammate wanted to needle Lemieux, he would call him "Ace."