A McCreachery Card Theory

[cyseymour]

Joe, thanks for the correction on the name spelling. To answer your first question, the belief that the McCreachery name is via the Old Judge book, p. 87.

"The final example is a rare portrait card of Deacon White. A fictitious name, McCreachery, is listed together with the title of manager for the Indianapolis club. Deacon White, the oldest player in the league, was apparently better suited to manage from the bench than play third base for the Detroit Wolverines."

To answer your second question, there are a lot of players with the prefix "Mc" in the OJ set. Obviously, they were not being slandered - those were their real names and they were actually Irish. But Deacon White was not Irish, his last name of "White" is obviously not Irish, and that is what makes it slander to change his name to an Irish one.

To call an Irish person a "Mick" is an ethnic slur. I would never use that language but you can see where it comes from. Personally, not only don't I have anything against the Irish, but it is a dream of mine to visit Ireland. From everything I had heard and seen it is a spectacularly beautiful country and the people are very nice. I also like Celtic music, which is really cool.

But in 19th Century America, not everyone did love the Irish. A lot of it is due to economic forces that make people feel they need to battle for resources, without which would threaten their livelihood. This makes them suspicious of outsiders. Even native-americans were called "foreigners" in the pre-war time period. How hypocritical is that?

[cyseymour]

One more point: if Deacon White really did have a strong year that year, as you suggest, that would not lend credence to the theory on the OJ book that they were poking fun at his poor play.

[RCMcKenzie]

Mac is gaelic for "son of". O' means "grandson of". Mc and mac are used interchangeably between people of Scotch or Irish heritage.

There is no such clan name as McCreacherie or McCreachery etc. The closest I have heard of is the Scotch name McCeachern.

It's my guess that they were making fun of his older age, as in Mac "Creature".... Not a malicious slander just making fun.

www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/genealogy.html

[cyseymour]

Originally Posted by RCMcKenzie

Mac is gaelic for "son of". O' means "grandson of". Mc and mac are used interchangeably between people of Scotch or Irish heritage.

There is no such clan name as McCreacherie or McCreachery etc. The closest I have heard of is the Scotch name McCeachern.

It's my guess that they were making fun of his older age, as in Mac "Creature".... Not a malicious slander just making fun.

www.geo.ed.ac.uk/home/scotland/genealogy.html

Very interesting. I had never known the gaelic meaning of those prefixes.

But if it truly was meant to mean "Mac Creature", then that could very well indeed suggest it to mean that he was a "creature of Irish descent." Terrific observation.

[RCMcKenzie]

On his wikipedia page (for what it's worth), it says that Deacon White was a "flat-earther" zealot. He went around trying to convince people that the earth was flat. So, it may have been making fun of his intelligence.

The word 'creature' also used to be humorous slang for 'whiskey'.(Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary 1959). It could be that they thought he drank. I am unaware of Catholics having strict views about alcohol usage. Anyway, I believe it was a nickname and running joke among the ball players and not an insult or slur in any way.

[cyseymour]

Wow, I had no idea about the slang of the word creature being a term for drinking. It turns out that the Irish were very heavy drinkers back then, according to the stereotype.

http://www.victoriana.com/Irish/Iris...alCartoons.htm

If "to creature" means to drink a lot, and the Irish were known to drink a lot, then the name "McCreachery" could have been a joke that meant "drinks so much that he's Irish".

If that's the case, then you are probably right that it is not really meant to be malicious (albeit still engaging in a stereotype).

[RCMcKenzie]

Yes, that's what I'm thinking it meant....

Also "White" is a very common English surname. Wikipedia cites a British genealogy website as listing "White" as the 16th most common surname in the United Kingdom.