Benny Bengough

[Snapolit1]

We all have our own individual quirks and special brand of OCD . . . .one of mine is pronouncing names wrong. Anyone know how you pronounce Bengough?

Ben - go? Rhymes with Van Gogh?

or Ben - gock? Rhymes with a town in China?

or Ben -gohze? Rhymes with ten shows?

[JustinD]

From his SABR bio:

"As newcomers to the Yankees, Bengough and young Lou Gehrig were assigned to room together. The two ex-college men immediately hit it off and forged a strong, lasting friendship. Bengough also became a favorite of Babe Ruth. They started a pregame ritual of warming up together, a habit Ruth felt brought good luck. It was from this daily ritual that Bengough’s nickname was derived.

Ruth was notoriously bad at remembering names. In most cases he simply referred to males as Kid and females as Sister. In seeking out Benny for their pregame warmup, Ruth couldn’t come up with the name of his little buddy. The closest he could come to Benny was remembering Barney Google, a popular comic-strip character at the time. Ruth proceeded to start barking for “Googles.” Teammates roared, and knew what was up; from that day on, Benny was christened with the monikers of Barney or Googles. Ruth and Bengough remained close friends as teammates and beer-drinking partners. Benny was part of Babe’s inner circle of friends, accompanying the Bambino on offseason barnstorming tours and hunting trips.

Bengough claimed to have the most mispronounced last name in all of baseball history. “Almost everybody called me ‘Bengow,’ ” he said. Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert “called me ‘Benkopf.’ But the way my name was really pronounced was ‘Bengoff.’ "

[Snapolit1]

Cool. Thanks Justin.

[drcy]

Harry S. Truman grew up in a small town, but was a voracious reader at the the local library. It was said that as a politician he had an impressive vocabulary but mispronounced many of the words, because he learned them from reading.

[JustinD]

You're welcome :)

Glad I read that because I am calling him Barney Googles from now on, lol.

[Snapolit1]

Harry S. Truman grew up in a small town, but was a voracious reader at the the local library. It was said that as a politician he had an impressive vocabulary but mispronounced many of the words, because he learned them from reading.

I've often though better someone tries to use big words and pronounces them wrong than not have any interest in developing an interesting vocabulary.

[Kawika]

It took me years to get over pronouncing Lajoie as La-joy and I still trip over Honus (it's Hon-iss) and now I've got to say Ben-goff? I'll stick with Ben-go. I'm too old for this.

[asoriano]

From his SABR bio:

"As newcomers to the Yankees, Bengough and young Lou Gehrig were assigned to room together. The two ex-college men immediately hit it off and forged a strong, lasting friendship. Bengough also became a favorite of Babe Ruth. They started a pregame ritual of warming up together, a habit Ruth felt brought good luck. It was from this daily ritual that Bengough’s nickname was derived.

Ruth was notoriously bad at remembering names. In most cases he simply referred to males as Kid and females as Sister. In seeking out Benny for their pregame warmup, Ruth couldn’t come up with the name of his little buddy. The closest he could come to Benny was remembering Barney Google, a popular comic-strip character at the time. Ruth proceeded to start barking for “Googles.” Teammates roared, and knew what was up; from that day on, Benny was christened with the monikers of Barney or Googles. Ruth and Bengough remained close friends as teammates and beer-drinking partners. Benny was part of Babe’s inner circle of friends, accompanying the Bambino on offseason barnstorming tours and hunting trips.

Bengough claimed to have the most mispronounced last name in all of baseball history. “Almost everybody called me ‘Bengow,’ ” he said. Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert “called me ‘Benkopf.’ But the way my name was really pronounced was ‘Bengoff.’ "

Very interesting...

[Tennis13]

We all have our own individual quirks and special brand of OCD . . . .one of mine is pronouncing names wrong. Anyone know how you pronounce Bengough?

Ben - go? Rhymes with Van Gogh?

or Ben - gock? Rhymes with a town in China?

or Ben -gohze? Rhymes with ten shows?


What Chinese city? I have to admit, I am stumped on that one.

[WillowGrove]

Thanks for posting that excerpt from his bio Justin. Really interesting info.

David, I too spent decades calling Nap, "La-joy".

And to address the original post, as an 8 year old I used to pronounce Don McMahon,
Don Mac mah hone. Ya know, phonetically.

And also pronounced Sonny Seibert as Sony.

In my favor I did pronounce Angels pitcher John Verehoven correctly. :)

[bn2cardz]

What Chinese city? I have to admit, I am stumped on that one.

I would assume he meant Thailand?

[Snapolit1]

I would assume he meant Thailand?

Indeed I did. Thai city.

[CobbSpikedMe]

How does everyone pronounce Marquard?

.

[Snapolit1]

I'd say MAR -kward. BUt who knows.