Posted By:
warshawlaw I love to play the game of theme team assembling (as do many of you I'm sure). What are your favorites? I will start with my nicknames team.
Nickname Rules: These are not just nicknames but are cases where the nickname has supplanted the player's actual name in the public consciousness so much that you all but forget that the guy has a given name:
C: Mickey (Gordon) Cochrane; 1B: Moose (Bill) Skowron; 2B: Junior (James) Gilliam; SS: Pee Wee (Harold) Reese; 3B: Buck (George) Weaver; RF: Babe (George) Ruth; CF: Pete (Harold) Reiser; LF: Minnie (Orestes) Minoso; P: Cy (Denton) Young, Satchel (Leroy) Paige. Honorable mention: Yogi (Lawrence) Berra (I went with Cochrane over Berra as catcher because Mutt Mantle actually thought Cochrane was named Mickey and named his kid Mickey in turn; would Mantle have been the same player if he'd been named Gordon??)
Diminutive Names: Everyone knows that we "play" ball like kids, so I chose some kids names for this team:
C: Yogi Berra; 1B: Jimmie Foxx; 2B: Nellie Fox; SS: Rabbit Maranville; 3B: Pie Traynor; RF: Babe Ruth; CF: Duke Snider; LF: Ki-Ki Cuyler