Chris Berman: Encyclopedia II - Chris Berman - Selected ballplayer nicknames and explanations

Chris Berman - Selected ballplayer nicknames and explanations

Chris Berman - Baseball

• Roberto "Remember the" Alomar - "play on "Remember the Alamo")
• Kevin "Small Mouth" Bass
• Jeff "Brown Paper" Bagwell
• Bert "Be Home" Blyleven - play on "be home by eleven"; reportedly a favorite of many Major League Baseball players
• Wade "Cranberry" Boggs
• Scott "Supercalifragilisticexpiali-" Brosius - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
• Ron "Born in the U.S." Cey - Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A."
• Jose "Caribbean" Cruz - or any other play on the "Cruise" homonym for any player named Cruz
• Jose "Won't You Let Me Take You on a Sea" Cruz - from a 1950s song
• Karim "Of The Crop" Garcia (play on the expression "cream of the crop")
• "Nomar Mr. Nice Guy" Garciaparra (a takeoff of the phrase "no more mister nice guy")
• Barry "U.S." Bonds - rock performer Gary "U.S." Bonds
• Jim "Two Silhouettes on" Deshaies (classic oldies song Silhouettes)
• Dwight "Johnny B." Gooden - Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode"
• Von "Purple" Hayes - play on "purple haze"
• Dave "Harry and the" Henderson
• LaMarr "Where Does It" Hoyt - play on "where does it hurt"
• Chuck "New Kids on" Knoblauch -group New Kids on the Block
• John "I am not a" Kruk - President Richard Nixon's infamous comment
• Oddibe "Young Again" McDowell - play on "oh to be young again, one of the few nicknames using a player's first name instead of his/her last
• "Me And Willie McGee" - Janis Joplin song "Me and Bobby McGee" (words and music by Kris Kristofferson)
• Fred "The Crime Dog" McGriff - McGruff the Crime Dog
• Mark "Eve of Destruction" McGwire - Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction"
• Eddie "Eat, Drink, and Be" Murray - play on "eat, drink, and be merry"
• Ken "Good Evening Mister" Phelps - catchphrase from Mission: Impossible
• Mike "Pepperoni" Piazza - pepperoni pizza
• Kirby "Union Gap" Puckett - Gary Puckett & The Union Gap
• Albert "Winnie the" Pujols - Winnie the Pooh
• Tim "Purple" Raines - Prince's Purple Rain
• Dave "Prince" Righetti - brand of spaghetti
• Jose "Blame it on" Rijo - movie Blame It on Rio
• Tom "Leave it to" Seaver - TV sitcom Leave it to Beaver
• Gary Sheffield "of Dreams" - baseball movie, Field of Dreams
• Sammy "Say It Ain't" Sosa - Shoeless Joe Jackson, started when Sosa was caught with a corked bat
• Frank Tanana "Daiquiri" - mixed drink, Banana Daiquiri
• Miguel "Tejada they come.....Tejada they fall" - (a takeoff of the phrase "The harder they come the harder they fall")
• Manny "Kingston" Trillo - The Kingston Trio
• Todd "Snap, Crackle," Van Poppel - reference to Rice Krispies
• Robin Ventura "Highway" - America's "Ventura Highway"
• Gary "Hospital" Ward
• Geoff "Wrath of" Zahn - movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Chris Berman - Football

• David "Green" Akers - a reference to the 1960's TV comedy show Green Acres
• Shaun "Alexander's Ragtime Marching Band" - reference to an old Irving Berlin song.
• Mike "You're in good hands with" Alstott - slogan for Allstate insurance
• Eric "Sleeping with" Bienemy - The movie Sleeping with the Enemy
• Matt "Werewolves of" Blundin - reference to Warren Zevon song "Werewolves of London"
• Tom "Here's the story of a man named" Brady - reference to the theme song to The Brady Bunch
• "The Reverend" Isaac Bruce
• Tedy "Ice Cold" Bruschi - a reference to a cold beer (or "brewski")
• Marc "Ray" Bulger - a reference to actor Ray Bolger who played the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, usually accompanied with a few lines of the scarecrow song
• Matt "White" Cassel - White Castle fast food chain
• Chris Chambers - after the Miami Dolphins wide receiver makes a catch, Berman exclaims "Time Has Come Today!" This is a reference to The Chambers Brothers song.
• Ben "Winter" Coates - "Winter coat"
• Jose "Baby" Cortez - reference to musician Dave "Baby" Cortez
• Alge "Cinnamon" Crumpler
• Karlos "Tiny" Dansby - reference to Elton John song "Tiny Dancer"
• Jake "Daylight Come and You Gotta" Delhomme - reference to a line from Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat Song"
• Willie "Soviet" Drewery - Soviet Jewry
• Warrick "Well" Dunn
• Tim Dwight "Good Night"
• Kevin "Slicin" Dyson
• "Marshall Marshall Marshall" Faulk - parody of phrase "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" from The Brady Bunch
• Christian "Eu" Fauria - "euphoria"
• Jeff "Philadelphia" Feagles (Feagles actually did play for the Eagles at one point in his career)
• Jay "See Me" Feely Kicky Goody - sung to the tune "See Me Feel Me" by The Who
• A.J. "Touchy" Feeley
• Jay Fiedler "on the roof" - parody of Fiddler on the Roof
• "Werewolves of" London Fletcher - reference to Warren Zevon song "Werewolves of London"
• Deshaun "Bananas" Foster
• Samkon "In" Gado "We Trust"- twist on the motto of the United States of America
• Rich "Loose" Gannon- Gannon rhymes with cannon, hint loose cannon which also explains his arm
• Robbie "Solid" Gould- Reference to TV show Solid Gold
• "Starvin" Marvin Harrison - reference to the gas station chain
• Joe "don't bother me, I'm on the" Horn - reference to his 2003 end zone celebration where he pulled a cell phone (horn) from under a goalpost
• "Temple" Bethel Johnson - Many Jewish temples go by the name Temple Beth-El
• "Grandmama" Larry Johnson - a reference to the basketball player of the same name who starred in a commercial where he dressed up as an old lady.
• Pacman Jones - any NFL Primetime highlight featuring Jones, Berman and co-host Tom Jackson make sound effects from the popular video game Pac-Man. Note that this nickname is not a Berman creation, as Jones had that nickname at West Virginia University, and possibly earlier.
• John Kasay "at the foot" - parody of poem "Casey at the Bat"
• Jon Kitna "Kaboodle" - reference to the phrase "the whole kit and kaboodle"
• Sean "Personal" Landeta
• Ty "I fought the" Law "and the law won" - reference to Sonny Curtis and The Clash song "I Fought the Law"
• Curtis "My Favorite" Martin - TV sitcom My Favorite Martian
• Josh "Tears of" McCown - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' song "The Tears of a Clown", often accompanied with a line of the song.
• Luke "Send in" McCown (Josh McCown's brother) - Stephen Sondheim song "Send in the Clowns"
• Natrone "Refried" Means
• Rick "No Time to Wallow in the" Mirer - line from The Doors hit "Light My Fire"
• Mike "After Dinner" Minter
• "Waltzing" Mewelde Moore - the song "Waltzing Matilda"
• Christian "The Nigerian Nightmare" Okoye
• Da Da Da Da Da... Heeeere's Carson (Carson Palmer) - parody of the introduction to the The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
• Doug "Bats in the" Pelfrey - expression "bats in the belfry"
• Ricky Proehl "Shampoo" - reference to Prell shampoo
• Andre "Bad Moon" Rison - expression "bad moon rising"; also a reference to the Creedence Clearwater Revival song "Bad Moon Rising"
• Samari "Shake, Rattle, N" Rolle
• Sage "Drew" Rosenfels - reference to sports agent Drew Rosenhaus
• Sean Salisbury "Steak"
• Lance "Sergeant" Schulters - reference to Hogan's Heroes character Sgt. Schultz
• Lito "Whoa-ohhh" Sheppard - referencing the lyric to the Boz Scaggs song "Lido Shuffle"
• George "Iced" Teague - "Iced Tea"
• Steve "A Tisker a" Tasker - reference to A Tisket a Tasket
• "The well-dressed" Amani Toomer - reference to upscale clothing brand Armani. Another variation is Amani "It's Not A" Toomer. Refers to Arnold Schwarzenegger quote from film Kindergarten Cop
• Michael Turner "Overdrive" - reference to Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
• Rob "My" Bironas - reference to the song "My Sharona".
• Reggie "Bruce" Wayne to the batcave - reference to the Batman series
• Dom Dom Dom, Dom Be Dooby Dom Dom Dom (Dom Capers) - reference to the Clarence E. Quick pop song. Berman has also used the popular beginning to the theme of Dragnet, after a Houston Texans loss.
• Hey you get off of (Mike Cloud) - reference to the Rolling Stones song
• Jed "Friedman" Weaver - reference to Brooklyn icon Jedediah Friedman.
• Troy Brown and his Band of Renown - reference to Les Brown and his Band of Renown, a swing band for over 50 years.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Selected ballplayer nicknames and explanations", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki