been away from this one a while too...Cy, you're getting kinda crazy with the riddles...
Anyways, I only posed the "creachery" possibility, because it is actually a word, no riddle there. The main reason I went with the Old-English translation of "hryre" for it, was for dramatic effect...
The creachery theory was just that, a theory, nothing more, nothing less. It has nothing to do with decline in his play, but pointed more towards the fact that 3 teams either went under, or lost ML status, during his tenures with them.. Possibly just a simple joke about him being bad luck.
However, as the SABR article pointed out, he was a very controversial player, and it's possible that some viewed his actions/views(especially regarding player rights and the reserve clause) as destructive to the teams he played for(or the game in general).
Aside from the probability that it's just some error with no explanation. It's nice to at least study the name, to see if at least some sort of tie can be made between the name and the players circumstances.
While the "mccrea" theory seems somewhat farther fetched than the "creachery" one. I wouldn't 100% write it off, although it's clearly taking up the rear, as far as possibilities go.. Riddles seem far less likely than joke, or simple error. Also, with only one known, who's to say that wasn't the only one in the first place? Without knowing who that card was intended for(I'm guessing it wasn't a public release), it will be hard to pin down the exact circumstances behind the name..
Oh my. With a little thought, creacherous behavior could be viewed as anarchy, and with Mc meaning son of...Maybe Deacon was a biker and the original "son of anarchy"..
