Interesting....
Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2014 11:29 amor maybe boring, I don't know...in doing some research, I ran across some name pronunciations that I had wrong.
Some of these guys we use in ATG8 played so long ago, we have never actually HEARD their names. We have heard OF them, and read their names, but never heard them actually pronounced.
Anyway,
Cheap catcher Lou Criger played for the early 1900s Red Sox. Always thought his name pronounced with a long i like "Cryger", but it's actually pronounced with a short "ih" sound
Gavvy Cravath....I always placed the stress on the first syllable, but it's actually pronounced "cruh-VATH"
I actually knew this info from earlier but thought I'd share about Kiki Cuyler. The pronunciation of Kiki is like "bye-bye", not "keekee". He was actually born Hazen Shirley Cuyler, but suffered from a severe stuttering problem all his life, and consequently had difficulty in pronouncing his own last name. His teammates would refer to him a "Kiki Cuyler," after his own pronunciation, and thus the name stuck.
A few misunderstood nicknames, first two are well-known, but I didn't know about Skowron:
Harold Reese: Called "Pee Wee" not because he was small, but because he was a champion marbles player.
Jim Hunter: Called "Catfish" not because he resembled the creature (or because he especially liked fishing), but because A's owner Charles Finley wanted him to have a colorful nickname and made one up for him.
Bill Skowron: Called "Moose" not because he was extraordinarily large (5'11", 195 lbs), but because of a childhood resemblance to Benito Mussolini. His grandfather gave the seven-year-old Skowron a haircut that looked like the dictator's and his friends jokingly called him "Mussolini". His family shortened the nickname to "Moose." The name stuck throughout his career.
Some of these guys we use in ATG8 played so long ago, we have never actually HEARD their names. We have heard OF them, and read their names, but never heard them actually pronounced.
Anyway,
Cheap catcher Lou Criger played for the early 1900s Red Sox. Always thought his name pronounced with a long i like "Cryger", but it's actually pronounced with a short "ih" sound
Gavvy Cravath....I always placed the stress on the first syllable, but it's actually pronounced "cruh-VATH"
I actually knew this info from earlier but thought I'd share about Kiki Cuyler. The pronunciation of Kiki is like "bye-bye", not "keekee". He was actually born Hazen Shirley Cuyler, but suffered from a severe stuttering problem all his life, and consequently had difficulty in pronouncing his own last name. His teammates would refer to him a "Kiki Cuyler," after his own pronunciation, and thus the name stuck.
A few misunderstood nicknames, first two are well-known, but I didn't know about Skowron:
Harold Reese: Called "Pee Wee" not because he was small, but because he was a champion marbles player.
Jim Hunter: Called "Catfish" not because he resembled the creature (or because he especially liked fishing), but because A's owner Charles Finley wanted him to have a colorful nickname and made one up for him.
Bill Skowron: Called "Moose" not because he was extraordinarily large (5'11", 195 lbs), but because of a childhood resemblance to Benito Mussolini. His grandfather gave the seven-year-old Skowron a haircut that looked like the dictator's and his friends jokingly called him "Mussolini". His family shortened the nickname to "Moose." The name stuck throughout his career.