Player name pronunciation?

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Posted By: Chris

Does anyone know where you could go to get correct pronunciations of player names? I have mostly read of players from the dead ball era and never actually heard most of their names pronounced. I mean, how do you pronounce Abbaticchio, Hoblitzell, is it Sherry Magie like on the famous T206 or is it pronounced Mu-gee with a long e at the end? What about Roush? Is it Rowsh or Rewsh? I was reading a book the other day and heard Fred Snodgrass had the nickname of Snow. Does that mean his name is pronounced Snowdgrass? That seems unlikely. Just curious. And what about Cobb? Well, ok I know that one but what about the others. I'm sure there are more that I am not sure of but these immediately come to mind.

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Posted By: Gary B.

Have I been pronouncing Nap Lajoie's name correctly? I hear it pronounced usually as lah-zhu-way as opposed to a more obvious, but seemingly incorrect lah-joy or lah-zhoy. Is the lah-zhu-way pronounciation correct?

P.S. If baseball ever makes their own brand of beer, it should be called a Killebrew.

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Posted By: jay behrens

Watch Ken Burn's Baseball mini series. This will help a lot as there any many interviews that help with this as will the program Glory of their Time.

Jay

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Posted By: Rhett

I don't think Harmon would be too happy about having a beer named after him since he is Mormon.

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Posted By: runscott

but even listening to tapes doesn't help - the tapes from "The Glory of Their Times" have names of the old-timers pronounced by their peers/team-mates, and I've been told that even THEY pronounce the names wrong. Weird, but true. "Cicotte" was an example - Julie assured me that the guys in the tape were pronouncing their buddy's last name incorrectly, and her argument made sense.

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Posted By: hankron

I worked with a man with a last name spelled "Dumesic." Unsure of how to pronounce his last name as I heard it said two ways, I asked him if it was "DU-mesic" or "du-MESIC."

He said, "Either way, I don't care."

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Posted By: prewarsports

Anyone here know if the "e" in Mullane is silent or if you pronounce it? I have always wondered about him since I try and collect his items, and have no idea how to pronounce his name.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Nap Lajoie pronounced it that way, not the French way.

There was a thread on this quite some time ago where a number of people weighed in with some good historical citations on the issue.

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Posted By: ramram

was from around late October of 2003. I couldn't find the original post however. If someone has the time they might want to pull it up and reference it.

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Posted By: bcornell

http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=153652&messageid=1075419710

http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=153652&messageid=1067463134

Tim Newcomb once provided this mnemonic:

From a beautiful little 1912 book of baseball verse I picked up on ebay recently, here's a stanza pertinent to this discussion:

And once, as all boys knew by heart,
Napoleon's name was Bonaparte,
But every urchin knows today,
His name's Lajoie (or Lajoway).


-- Edmund Vance Cooke, BASEBALLOGY (1912)

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

but that's MY post. not Runscott's. Oh well.

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Posted By: runscott

what are you talking about?

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

The SECOND link offered by Bill will yield an answer by me, but with the name "Scott" in the upper right hand corner. If you click on the Scott, however, my address will appear. I have no idea how this happened; I remember making the post very well, and did not pretend to be you.

Oh, I see your problem. My post is no longer the introductary one. Well, it's called "Nobody could ever quite figure out the right way to say Eddie...." and says it's written by "Scott." But it ain't, see? It's written by me.
It's about Cicotte, not Lajoie. Sorry (I guess.)



That's Knuckles, on the left.

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Posted By: TBob

that Jack Chesbro's name was pronounced "Cheese-bro" but Julie swears it was and I have no facts to argue the point.
BTW- How do you pronounce "Joss" is it "Yoss" or "Yoos" "Yose" "Joes" or "Jahs"?

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

..

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Posted By: bcornell

"Chesbro" is pronounced "lucky" - he is probably the single most undeserving player in the HOF, Rabbit Maranville and Roger Bresnahan not excluded.

Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown deserves a plug here - 16 "who are they?" HOFers profiled.

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Posted By: Gary B.

"Chesbro" is pronounced "lucky" - he is probably the single most undeserving player in the HOF, Rabbit Maranville and Roger Bresnahan not excluded.

Jack Chesbro may not have been the greatest pitcher of all time, but he still deserves to be in the hall. Besides winning 41 games in one year (unbeaten in the modern era), between 1901-1906 he was 153-75. His lifetime ERA was 2.68 (Cy Young was 2.63) and his lifetime winning percentage was .600 (Walter Johnson was .599). Maybe he didn't have a LONG career as a fantastic pitcher, but it was at least a few year run of great pitching where he won 20+ games 5 times (almost 6), not just the one unbelievable season.

Rabbit Maranville was supposedly a fantastic shortstop with more games played in the NL than any other player at shortstop (unless that record was subsequently broken - my research didn't take me that far), and he did get 2,605 hits - not bad for someone who was a shortstop most of his career.

I think of that list you mentioned, Roger Bresnahan is the one that doesn't deserve inclusion. He may have revolutionized catching by introducting protective gear, and he was supposedly a great chatcher, but his offensive numbers are unimpressive to say the least, at least for a HOF'er.

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Posted By: Big Spider Beck

Kee Kee Kyeler?
Kye Kye Kyeler?
Kee Kee Keeler?
And, any particular reason for that nickname or just alliteration?

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Posted By: Ben

I do believe "Kiki" (or Kee Kee) was the nickname for Hazen Cuyler, the HOF outfielder who played for the Pirates and Cubs in the 20's and 30's. Keeler was "Wee Wee" or "Wee Willie".

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

Kye Kye Cuyler, not Kee Kee. He ought to know. (Bob Vognar)



"Hase" means "hare" in German; Hazen doesn't mean anything in German--maybe Dutch?

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Posted By: Brian H (misunderestimated)

Rube Marquard
Chick Haffey
F. Lindstrom
Geo. Kelley
and Tommy McCarthy
(Candy Cummings is "ify")
Bresnahan was the best Catcher in Baseball for several years -- catchers rarely put up decent offensive numbers in the old days -- Ray Schalk's batting numbers are worse anyway.

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Posted By: Elliot

Ross Youngs should be added to the list

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

...


So Keeler was called "Wee Wee" for some reason, and Reese called "Pee Wee" from childhood because of his skill with marbles, and Frank Barning, I really, REALLY didn't know it was supposed to be a dirty joke. Where i went to school in 1951, it was an old stone building, with a long corridor on each floor, and the family head at one end, and at the other, a JOHN< just am toilet, with a door that LOCKED FROM THE OUTSIDE--no, I don't know why, but I was 15 and it was Germany, so I never asked. When sNYDER SAYS TO arEESE AT THE END, "well if you don't like "Pee Wee Belongs in the Hall" on my suitcasem how about "Pee Wee Belongs in the Terlet"? I thought of Reese locked up in that little room! I KNOW, it doesn't make any sense, but that's what I thought of.

Also, it was in bad taste because Snyder grew up[ in California, and would NEVER have said "terlet," because why pick up Brooklinese?

It was a dumb, dumb joke, and I'm sorry I told it, but PLEASE won't you help me put my '53 Bowman set together like you promised?

Oh...I don't want it anymore.

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Posted By: Mike McGrail

... Hazen is indeed a Dutch word meaning hares. One hare is a haas, multiple hares are hazen.

Ciao for now,

Mike

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Posted By: Big Spider Beck

Just found the answer to my question:
http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/conlon/nicknames/index.html

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Posted By: jULIE

...