Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

The Name Game

Wally Boyer from Pittsburgh . . . No. 1 fan (missed the 1998 season after suffering a stroke) . . . Ray Molphy from Long Island, N.Y. . . . No. 1 announcer (he retired after the 1998 season)

Nicknames, nicknames, nicknames . . . most of them tagged by Ray Molphy, who came from Long Island, N.Y., to become "The Voice of Softball." Ray retired after calling his 30th Smoky Mountain Classic in 1998. He used to call games from 8 a.m. until midnight. His great voice will be missed.

Here are some of those nicknames:

-- Rick "The Crusher" Scherr . . . probably the most famous softball nickname of all.

-- "Dangerous" Dennis Graser.

-- Darrell Beeler "The Tulsa Terror."

-- Mark Hierlmeier "The Tampa Terror."

-- Russell "The Rooster" Bradley.

-- Larry Fredieu "The Bayou Beauty."

-- Rick Wheeler "The Pomona Pumper."

-- Doug Roberson "The Beast."

-- Bruce "The Bruiser" Meade.

-- "Tricky" Ricky Weiterman.

-- David "Tater" Allen.

-- Thom Lord "The Dinosaur"

-- "Rocket" Ron Parnell.

-- "Rocket" Rod Hughes.

-- "Lovable" Larry Carter.

-- "Monsterous" Monty Tucker . . . They started calling him "Mile High" Monty after he won a home run derby at Mile High Stadium.

-- Charles Wright "The Georgia Peach"

-- "Daffy" Dave Steffen . . . or "The Daffy One."

-- Dan Schuck "The Iowa Idol."

-- "Cranking" Craig Elliott . . . or "The Cranker."

-- James Boyett "The Rattler."

-- "Mighty Joe" Young . . Young's first name was not even Joe . . it was Andrew.

-- Mike "The Masher" Macenko . . . also known as "Big Coon," "Gorilla Boy," "Mighty Mike," and "Roy Hobbs-The Natural." Now he goes by "Big Cat."

-- Mark "Downtown" Brown.

-- Denny "Uptown" Jones . . . When Dave Carroll recruited Jones out of Louisiana, he said, "He's got long hair and a full beard, and he hits it so far, they call him Jesus Jones."

-- Eddie "Jughead" Foust.

-- Judson "Jughead" Jackson.

-- Gene "Mountain" Jones.

-- Mickey "Bimbo" McCarty.

-- "Shack" McDaniel.

-- Charlie "Beep Beep" Pierce.

-- Brian "Snake" Reed.

-- Tuck "Fleet Feet" Hinton.

-- Harold "Killer" Kelley.

-- Elby "Boom Boom" Bushong . . . the West Coast version.

-- Larry "Boom Boom" Hutcherson . . . the East Coast version.

-- Scott "Bam Bam" Virkus.

-- Greg "C-Train" Cannedy.

-- Ricky "Huggy Bear" Huggins.

-- Scott "Scooter" Nastally.

-- Lamar "Spec" Echols.

-- Kenny "Pickle" Pruitt.

-- Dirk "The Blaster" Androff.

-- Clyde "The Glide" Guy.

-- Herman "Captain Crunch" Rathman . . . or "Hammering Herman."

-- Richard Willborn "The Texas Tornado."

-- Dick Bartel "The Rocket Man."

-- Greg "The Bull" Fuhrman . . . in his early years on the circuit, they called him "The Baby Bull."

-- Walter "June Bug" Wright.

-- William "Billo" Harvey.

-- Henry McBeth "Buffalo Soldier."

-- Kevin "Tiny" Giddens.

-- Derek "Tweekie" Jones.

-- David "Ta Ta" Beaird.

-- Steve "Yank" Jones.

-- Jim "Bo Bo" Bizzell.

-- "Leaping" Larry Garrard.

-- "Doc" Crismond.

-- "Doc" Thompson.

-- "Dock" Booker.

-- "Tex" Collins.

-- "Chub" Johnson.

-- "Buck" Buchanan.

-- "Prince" Williams.

-- "Jack 'em" John Grissom.

-- Ray "Country" Cowart.

-- F.A. "Faraway" Martin.

-- "Jolly" Charlie Mitchell.

-- Phil Jobe "Black Magic"

-- David "Dirt" Brown.

-- Jeff "Poncahontas" Ross.

-- "Cactus" Jack Reagan . . . sometimes he was called "Cadillac Jack."

-- Chris Chilton "Chili" or "Chili Dog"

-- "Mutzy" Matzdorf.

-- Brian "Bauser" Ellinghausen.

-- Jim "Birdie" Burbrink.

-- "Gar" King.

-- Mike "Stump" Stanley.

-- Jeff "Mule" Riner.

-- "Buck" Hall.

-- Ray "The Big Bopper" Anderson.

-- Earl "T-Bird" Funderberg.

Some of my favorite Molphyisms, (and some from David, Ray's backup announcer at the Smoky):

--"His next hit will be his first."

--"He's on the snide . . . he's off the snide."

-- "That was an insurance catch . . . if you don't have the insurance, you had better catch it"

-- "That was a tweener . . . between his legs."

-- "A Del Monte Job" . . . a high pop fly.

-- "The sacks are packed" or "The bases are bulging."

-- "A Slammeroo."

-- "He has two hits, one for the minimum, one for the maximum" . . . a player with a single and a home run.

-- "That was Scherr power" . . . after a Rick Scherr home run.

-- "A piece of peach pie" . . . a Charles Wright home run.

-- Herman Rathman came up with a couple of nicknames: "Left Turn" Don Ardnt . . . for trotting down to first base, taking a left turn, going to second base, taking a left turn, etc. . . . and "Sweet Swinging" Stan Harvey . . . Molphy called them "The Hall of Fame Twins."

-- "Chic" Downing . . . Ray did not give Matthew his nickname; he got that for going to get a bucket of "yardbird" after every game. He spelled it "Chic" . . . not "Chick."

-- And . . . "Another Waller Wallop" for H.T. (Herschel Tucker) Waller.

The short and the long in the name game:

--Ted Cox.

--Ed Roth.

--Ed Berg.

--Ed Sipe.

--Al White.

--Mike Nye.

--Ken Dain.

--Ron Ford.

--Lou Page.

--Bob Reid.

--Al Davis.

--Gar King.

--Tim Moye.

--Wes Lord.

--Jeff Ott.

--Tim Finn.

--Bob Olah.

--Ken Bean.

--Ed Hicks.

--Ben Holt.

--Hal Ward.

--Ron Wood.

--Buck Hall.

--Jeff Hall.

--Jeff Ross.

--Bill Cole.

--Ben Hogan.

--Thom Lord.

--Dan Basso.

--Lou Russo.

--Tom Beall.

--Joe Patti.

--Dick Laba.

--Tom Spahn.

--Greg Pyle.

--Kurt Hoff.

--Mike Lane.

--Bob Kozar.

--Tim Cocco.

--Joe Young.

--Don Arndt.

--Mike Cobb.

--Mark Cobb.

--Dal Beggs.

--Joe Foley.

--Tom White.

--Tim White.

--Bill Byrd.

--Tim Jones.

--Andy Cook.

--Rik Lucas.

--Ron Groce.

--Jeff Haag.

--Ken Loeri.

--Bob Wells.

--Clyde Guy.

--Joel Todd.

--Carl Rose.

--Gary Jost.

--Phil Jobe.

--Doug Kett.

--Mike Turk.

--Bob Davis.

--Tom Lynch.

--Jay Smith.

--Randy Noe.

--Bill Pope.

--Tim Allen.

--Mike Rose.

--Don Fazio.

--Jim Mortl.

--Dale Mayo.

--Roger Mayo.

--Ron Wooddy.

--Bill Blake.

--Bill Gatti.

--Jim Fuller.

--Mike Gouin.

--Doug Burns.

--Doug Brown.

--Marty Parr.

--Mike Shenk.

--Phil White.

--Lonnie Fox.

--Rick Pinto.

--Bruce Wood.

--Doug Flynn.

--Bill Meyer.

--Dean Olson.

--Andy Alvis.

--Mike Bolen.

--Roger Mayo.

--Bob Fisher.

--Jim Devine.

--Tim Linson.

--John Mello.

--Dan Schuck.

--Phil White.

--Rod Hughes.

--Jeff Vargo.

--Ted Larson.

--Jerry King.

--Fred Trice.

--Roy Eppley.

--Larry Neff.

--Dana Andry.

--Cal Carmen.

--Mike Foley.

--Dave Elder.

--Gary Jones.

--Mac Stalcup.

--John Dollar.

--Bill Pollock.

--And . . .

--Darrell Misenheimer.

--Brian Ellinghausen.

--Robin Higginbotham.

--Warren Scarborough.

--Jennings Wilkerson.

--Russell Weilbacher.

--James Abercrombie.

--Charles Commander.

--Rusty Bumgardner.

--Danny Robicheaux.

--Chuckie Maiorana.

--Ernie Montgomery.

--Derrick Williams.

--Cleveland Dortch.

--Don Clatterbaugh.

--Dewayne Frizzell.

--James Washington.

--Melvin Mallernee.

--Charles Mitchell.

--Hulon Walsingham.

--Larry Hutcherson.

--Steve Brodzinski.

--Murdock Thompson.

--Steve Blanchette.

--Waddell Spearman.

--Allie Squartino.

--Gary Walsingham.

--Russell Bradley.

--Jerry Laspanara.

--Earl Funderberg.

--Freddie Johnson.

--Mike Brodzinski.

--Mickey Morrison.

--Dave Dillingham.

--Parrish Barwick.

--Randy Kortokrax.

--Braxton Speller.

--Wendell Rickard.

--Frank Rodrigues.

--Cliff Carpenter.

--George Marshall.

--Derek Gallagher.

--Roger Snatchko.

--Darrell Beeler.

--Keith Brockman.

--Carl Dickinson.

--Scott McDaniel.

--Larry Sauceman.

--Ron Whittleton.

--Dan Dillingham.

--Don Walsingham.

--Jason Kendrick.

--Rick Weiterman.

--Terry Perryman.

--Mickey McCarty.

--Andy Okulovich.

--Tommy Thompson.

--Tim Williamson.

--Dennis Mendoza.

--Doug Shanyfelt.

--Kevin Birkofer.

--Caleb Rabenold.

--Rich Petrunyak.

--Sandy Sandoval.

--Dale Sensenig.

--Tom Maslowski.

--Al Krzezewski.

--Randy Romagna.

--Todd Joerling.

--Doug Berfeldt.

Home Supreme Softball's Front Page

Check out Steve Dimitry's Slow Pitch Softball History Page for all the facts and figures.

Email: jeromeearnest@netscape.net