Baseball names? Just give me the Coot Veal.

I read an amusing story in the New York Times today about goofy baseball names, and then a friend of mine (Drew) posted something about a couple of names that crack him up every time he sees or hears them.


Bet is was painful.

Go figure?

Drew mentioned Seattle pitcher Charlie Furbush, and Detroit pitcher Al Albuquerque

I first laughed at Charlie Furbush last season, not only for my being a ‘Charlie,’ as it also reminded me of a couple of old stories about my ex-wife (Ruth), who for all our other differences, had a great and ironic sense of humor.

We were on a vacation trip once, driving from Tucson (AZ) to Flagstaff and passed a sign around Sedona that read, " Wet Beaver Creek – 8 Miles."

Ruth mused (to me), "Bet you’d like to dip your pole into that one, huh?"



Wanna dip your pole?

She was a pretty big baseball fan, and we were watching a game on the tube when the Kansas City Royal 1^st baseman, Pete LaCock, came to bat. He is/was (then) famous game show host Peter Marshall’s son, and you old guys can back me up on this.

Just a little bit inside

Anyway, Pete is up at bat, and the pitcher smokes a fast ball – really tight inside, and Pete has to dramatically jack-knife out of harms way.

Ruth remarked, "He was almost Pete La, after that one."

Ruth seemingly single-mindedness aside, there actually was a pitcher (and later pitching coach) named Dick Pole. I sometimes wonder if the world would end if he ever visited Wet Beaver Creek? There was another former player and coach named Coot Veal – I am not making these names up – who sounds like some dish you’d find at a place like Nouveau, a "fusion restaurant" in Brooklyn. They make their Coot Veal out of young, fatted calf, and skinny, old coots .

Have with fava beans, and a nice Chianti!

I had an old joke I used to tell, when dumb-ass Steve Sax was the Dodger second baseman, and OrelHersheiser was the LA star pitcher. The joke would work best with baseball fans when I told them that Sax and his wife were expecting their first child, and if was a boy they were going to name him after Orel…

Second best name all time is a guy that I saw pitch in Connie Mack Stadium in the early 1960’s. He was known simply as Cal McLish, but his full, legal name was Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish.

But still, to me, the #1 best baseball name of all time is I Don’t Care… he’s our shortstop.