Baseball is a wonderful game, but baseball writing can be even better. Especially when the writer is engaging, informative and likes to have a good time.
That is what makes D.B. Firstman’s self-published book, Hall of Name: Baseball’s Most Magnificent Monikers from ‘The Only Nolan’ to ‘Van Lingle Mungo’ and More (DB Books; paperback; $12.60; 312 pages) such a fun read.
In the book, which is due out March 17, Firstman has selected 100 unique baseball names. Firstman's prose has a winking, smirking, joking tone and has a good deal of snark. But Firstman also educates the reader about players’ names that have made us laugh, snicker and even cringe.
I was sold when the first player Firstman wrote about was St. Petersburg native Boof Bonser, although I was disappointed Piano Legs Hickman was not included. That doesn’t matter; Hall of Name is the kind of book where you can turn to any page and be entertained.
“I’ve always been inquisitive and a lover of words,” Firstman writes.
Firstman also enjoys anagrams, which are an integral part of every biography.
The book is divided into four sections, with players listed alphabetically: Baseball Poets and Men of (Few Different) Letters, Dirty Names Done Dirt Cheap, Sounds Good to Me, and No Focus Group Convened. As free-wheeling as Firstman is, the book has a very consistent structure to it. Each player’s capsule includes his full birth name, the pronunciation of difficult parts (where applicable), height and weight, birth/death date, position, years active and the player’s name/etymology.
After every biography, each player capsule ends with the player’s best day, “The Wonder of His Name,” not to be confused with, fun anagrams and ephemera. The final category contains fun facts and trivia about each player.
Having gotten all the formalities out of the way, one can tell Firstman did some wonderful research and had a blast with the anagrams. For example, by using the full name of Josh Outman (Joshua Stephen Outman), the anagram is “Oh Jesus! A potent human.” Or, Orval Overall is “Roll over lava.”
Love it.
Another fun fact about Overall: His first and last names contain 11 letters, but only six of them are unique.
Some of Firstman’s comments are almost better than the trivia that was dug up for the players. Gene Krapp, for example, died from cancer of the bowels (I am not making this up). Doug Gwosdz is a “competent catcher; bad Scrabble draw.” Jennings Poindexter “apparently read liquor bottles more than books.” Scarborough Green “sounds like the name of a British detective from the 1930s.”
Roll some of these names off your tongue. From the first section there is Callix Crabbe, Scipio Spinks (“Now, there’s a name,” Jim Bouton wrote in Ball Four, while incorrectly misspelling his last name as “Spinx.”), Greg Legg and Ugueth Urbina (the only player in major league history with the initials UU or UUU, Firstman writes. From the second: Tony Suck, J.J. Putz, Rusty Kuntz and Johnny Dickshot. Names gracing the third section include Milton Bradley, Drungo Hazewood, Razor Shines, Biff Pocoroba, and of course, Van Lingle Mungo. And the fourth section includes Harry Colliflower, Purnal Goldy, Grover Loudermilk, Dorsey Riddlemoser, Joe Zdeb and lastly, Edward Sylvester Nolan, better known as The Only Nolan.
Firstman decided to self-publish Hall of Name after being rejected by small publishers in 2012. The publishers basically said, “Privately we love the concept .. but it just won’t sell enough to be worth our while,” Firstman writes.
Publicly, I believe Hall of Name will sell quite well. D.B. Firstman has produced an entertaining, funny and interesting look at baseball names. Not nicknames, for the most part (we’ll concede The Only Nolan), but real names. Yes, Pocoroba’s first name really is Biff, and Bonser had his first name legally changed to Boof in 2001.
I look forward to another edition in the future; with so many baseball names out there, there has to be enough for Volume 2.
I am just hoping Piano Legs Hickman makes the cut the next time.
That is what makes D.B. Firstman’s self-published book, Hall of Name: Baseball’s Most Magnificent Monikers from ‘The Only Nolan’ to ‘Van Lingle Mungo’ and More (DB Books; paperback; $12.60; 312 pages) such a fun read.
In the book, which is due out March 17, Firstman has selected 100 unique baseball names. Firstman's prose has a winking, smirking, joking tone and has a good deal of snark. But Firstman also educates the reader about players’ names that have made us laugh, snicker and even cringe.
I was sold when the first player Firstman wrote about was St. Petersburg native Boof Bonser, although I was disappointed Piano Legs Hickman was not included. That doesn’t matter; Hall of Name is the kind of book where you can turn to any page and be entertained.
“I’ve always been inquisitive and a lover of words,” Firstman writes.
Firstman also enjoys anagrams, which are an integral part of every biography.
The book is divided into four sections, with players listed alphabetically: Baseball Poets and Men of (Few Different) Letters, Dirty Names Done Dirt Cheap, Sounds Good to Me, and No Focus Group Convened. As free-wheeling as Firstman is, the book has a very consistent structure to it. Each player’s capsule includes his full birth name, the pronunciation of difficult parts (where applicable), height and weight, birth/death date, position, years active and the player’s name/etymology.
After every biography, each player capsule ends with the player’s best day, “The Wonder of His Name,” not to be confused with, fun anagrams and ephemera. The final category contains fun facts and trivia about each player.
Having gotten all the formalities out of the way, one can tell Firstman did some wonderful research and had a blast with the anagrams. For example, by using the full name of Josh Outman (Joshua Stephen Outman), the anagram is “Oh Jesus! A potent human.” Or, Orval Overall is “Roll over lava.”
Love it.
Another fun fact about Overall: His first and last names contain 11 letters, but only six of them are unique.
Some of Firstman’s comments are almost better than the trivia that was dug up for the players. Gene Krapp, for example, died from cancer of the bowels (I am not making this up). Doug Gwosdz is a “competent catcher; bad Scrabble draw.” Jennings Poindexter “apparently read liquor bottles more than books.” Scarborough Green “sounds like the name of a British detective from the 1930s.”
Roll some of these names off your tongue. From the first section there is Callix Crabbe, Scipio Spinks (“Now, there’s a name,” Jim Bouton wrote in Ball Four, while incorrectly misspelling his last name as “Spinx.”), Greg Legg and Ugueth Urbina (the only player in major league history with the initials UU or UUU, Firstman writes. From the second: Tony Suck, J.J. Putz, Rusty Kuntz and Johnny Dickshot. Names gracing the third section include Milton Bradley, Drungo Hazewood, Razor Shines, Biff Pocoroba, and of course, Van Lingle Mungo. And the fourth section includes Harry Colliflower, Purnal Goldy, Grover Loudermilk, Dorsey Riddlemoser, Joe Zdeb and lastly, Edward Sylvester Nolan, better known as The Only Nolan.
Firstman decided to self-publish Hall of Name after being rejected by small publishers in 2012. The publishers basically said, “Privately we love the concept .. but it just won’t sell enough to be worth our while,” Firstman writes.
Publicly, I believe Hall of Name will sell quite well. D.B. Firstman has produced an entertaining, funny and interesting look at baseball names. Not nicknames, for the most part (we’ll concede The Only Nolan), but real names. Yes, Pocoroba’s first name really is Biff, and Bonser had his first name legally changed to Boof in 2001.
I look forward to another edition in the future; with so many baseball names out there, there has to be enough for Volume 2.
I am just hoping Piano Legs Hickman makes the cut the next time.
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