"Nice photo and companion piece, Scott! But the "Hippo" monicker seems rather harsh
He doesn't even look overweight to me. Wonder what they would have called David Wells or Sid Fernandez back then?"
Mark (Perezfan),
Thanks for the compliment on the Hippo Vaughn photo. You ended up with some dandy items yourself. Love the glasses and photos.
Your comment about the "Hippo" moniker made me think about how he got it to begin with, and I couldn't remember myself. I ended up pulling out my copy of SABR's 2004 great book "Deadball Stars of the National League" to see if there was anything in there. Sure enough, here you go:
Jim Vaughn was "a large man 6'4" and between 215 and 230 lbs., though reports indicate that his weight balooned to close to 300 lbs. late in his career" (shades of David Wells, Sid Fernandez and Mickey Lolich I would say, sure enough!), whose lumbering, side-to-side gait gave him the nickname "Hippo". There you go!
A cool side note:
By rereading the chapter in the book, I realized that the photo that they used in the chapter on "Hippo" Vaughn is the exact one that I just purchased in the Mears "never ending" auction!
