Nickname Game

I love nicknames, I myself have a few, Feedbag and Brady for starters. I love to try to nickname people all the time, whether it's at work or hanging with friends, it's fun for me. Another thing I love is sports nicknames. Athletes get all the best nicknames, George "Babe" Ruth, Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, Willie "The Say Hey Kid" Mayes, and of course Ervin "Magic" Johnson. 3 of those are what you actually call guys. I have a few problems with the state of nicknames though. We're just getting lazy, seems these days it's mostly intials (LdT or LT-Ladanian Tomlinson, DW-Darrell Waltrip) or using the first or last name to create some (A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez and Aaron Rodgers, or Revis Island-Darrelle Revis) Don't get me wrong we have some goodies currently being used I love Megatron for Calvin Johnson and The Freak for Tim Lincecum. It makes me wonder why we're not getting some of the lasting nicknames like the Galloping Ghost or Crazy Legs Hirsch. I have a few ideas.

The large number of great Latin players in baseball, instead of coming up with something new people just take the easy way out. Your last name is Rodriguez, guess your nickname is first name intial then "Rod," A-Rod or K-Rod (I guess K-rod is a bad example but it's almost the same thing). Gonzales is another favorite, Car-Go, Lui-Go, A-Gone, guess what all those guys names are, Carlos, Luis and Adrian. Martinez has V-Mart, no originallity at all, a few have gotten sweet names Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, (the second "Pudge" but I'll get into that later. Why do we have to take the easy way out why not give guys real nicknames. Why not something without their name in it. Just saying.

Another problem could be the fact we're running out of names, I referenced "Pudge" earlier, there are two Pudges, Carlton Fisk and Ivan Rodriguez. The name fits both so no reason not for them to have it. I think if a name fits a guy he should be able to carry a nickname of someone who came before him. Why can't we use "Babe" or "Air" ever again just because they were the best we have to retire the nicknames like jersey numbers. In boxing there are 100 guys with the name Sugar and people didn't stop after Ray Leonard retired. If a guy warrants the name "Hammer" he should get it and he shouldn't be held up in Hank Aaron's light, I think Prince Fielder fits the name "Hammer" very well, of course some call his current teammate Ryan Braun "the Herbrew Hammer" so maybe that'd get confusing.

I think the biggest culprit to the fad of using the name is Chris Berman, who for a time gave everyone a nickname using their name, some are good Andre "bad moon" Rison, others even though funny the guy has a better nickname that was "Boomer" gives him. Albert "Winnie the" Pujols is more commonly known as "The Machine" I like that more than the bear reference. Maybe since Bermann made it common place to just use the guys name people stopped getting creative. Let's do this America, let's start to get creative again stop using initals (T.O.), stop using the easy way out using last names (King James), stop combining the first and last name into one (J-Roll). One more thing don't shoten a nickname to an even small nickname (AD for All Day, Adrian Peterson). To have a little fun though I'm gonna list some of favorite current nicknames and maybe I'll give away my favs of all time another time.

All Day-Adrian Peterson, great name and he is a horse so he can get the ball All Day.
Megatron-Calvin Johnson, the guy is huge, fast, great hands he's amazing.
The Freak-Tim Lincecum, he's small, weird motion and is effective, it is freaky.
Any Time-Devin Hester, it's a play on his hero's name "Prime Time" but Devin is defiantly Any Time but it does seem he gets his biggest returns in "prime time."
The Machine-Albert Pujols, it fits the guy, he's a machine in his mechanics and looks effortless.
The Big Donkey-Adam Dunn, rumor is he's a very gifted man, and I'm not talking about how far he can hit the ball.
Pronk-Travis Hafner, part project part donkey, not sure what that means but awesome name.
5-Time-Jimmie Johnson, this term of endearment started as 4-time which Jeff Gordon called him when he was pissed after the two had a tift last season.
Sex Cannon-Rex Grossman, not sure who thought of this but me and Chris have called Rex this for year.
Dirty-Mark Sanchez, it's what Chris calls him, I believe it's for Dirty Sanchez a not so nice thing to give your lady friend.
Lil Schrub-Kyle Busch, a play on his last name and being the younger Busch brother in Nascar.
If you have any feel free to leave some, and seriously we need more cool nicknames not just abbreviated names D-Wade I'm looking at you.