Best Nicknames in Baseball History by ESPN on Baseball Almanac

The List : Best Nicknames in Baseball History

ESPN, on Page 2, ran a great article in 2001 called The List : Best nicknames in baseball history. They "officially" declared June as Nickname Month and then voted for the best all-time nickname in baseball. Here are their editorial staff's selections, the fans selections, their poll results and more.

"#3. Willie Hit em Where They Ain't Keeler - complicated nickname, deceptively simple hitting philosophy." - ESPN Page 2 Editorial Staff (2001)

The List : Best Nicknames in Baseball History by ESPN Page 2 Editorial Staff
Rank	Nickname [Hover Over Name for Why]	Name
1^st	The Splended Splinter	Ted Williams
2^nd	The Sultan of Swat	Babe Ruth
3^rd	Willie "Hit 'em Where They Ain't" Keeler	Willie Keeler
4^th	"Hammerin' " Hank Aaron	Hank Aaron
5^th	The Big Unit	Randy Johnson
6^th	The Georgia Peach	Ty Cobb
7^th	Mordecai "Three Fingers" Brown	Mordecai Brown
8^th	The Yankee Clipper	Joe DiMaggio
9^th	Fred "Bonehead" Merkle	Fred Merkle
10^th	Walter "Big Train" Johnson	Walter Johnson
The List : Best Nicknames in Baseball History by ESPN Page 2

The ESPN Page 2 editorial staff gave an honorable mention to: Mark "Big Mac" McGwire, Willie "The Say Hey Kid" Mays, Jimmie "Double X" Foxx, Paul "Poison" Waner and Lloyd "Little Poison" Waner, "Dizzy" and "Daffy" Dean, Don "Donny Baseball" Mattingly, "Rapid" Robert Feller, Whitey "The Chairman of the Board" Ford, Willie "Pops" Stargell, Ken Griffey "Junior", Roger "The Rocket" Clemens and Dwight "Dr. K" Gooden.

The ESPN Page 2 editorial staff received more than two-thousand letters after they published their list of the best nicknames in baseball history. Some agreed. Some disagreed. Some made suggestions of their own. The Page 2 editorial staff then took those letters and made another baseball list based on the quantity of received letters:

Top Ten Nicknames by Letters Received

Rank	Nickname	Name	Letters
1^st	Charlie Hustle	Pete Rose	121
2^nd	Stan the Man	Stan Musial	103
3^rd	Shoeless Joe	Joe Jackson	96
4^th	Sultan of Swat / The Babe	Babe Ruth	79
5^th	Donnie Baseball	Don Mattingly	57
6^th	Oil Can	Dennis Boyd	51
7^th	The Splended Splinter	Ted Williams	48
8^th	The Wizard of Oz	Ozzie Smith	39
8^th	Hammerin' Hank	Hank Aaron	39
10^th	Mr. October	Reggie Jackson	28

The two lists (Best Nicknames in Baseball History & Top Ten Nicknames by Letters Received) were combined and a poll was taken. Here are the results of that particular poll.

14,647 votes and from the poll came a new list of top ten baseball nicknames (no new entries were permitted).

Do you agree with their choices? Do you have a favorite nickname? Share your opinion on Baseball Fever where there are thousands of topics about baseball nicknames...

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