Batter up...
Batter up...
April 14, 2005
If you think that there is any chance that your genes will produce a professional athlete, don't give him or her a name like Lew, Pooh, Sue, etc.
Everytime Lew Ford comes to bat for the Twins, I think the crowd is booing him. The same used to be true for former Minnesota Timberwolf Pooh Richardson.
I've never known a famous athlete named "Sue," but I'm sure it would be the same.
Posted by rhode at April 14, 2005 01:38 AMYeah, but it goes even deeper. The fans call Kevin Youkilis "Youk", but of course all you hear is "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH".
Posted by: Jeff at April 14, 2005 03:17 PMOk, on the subject of names. The key is that the chosen name should be two syllables; aka, Kirby, Larry, Bobby (not Bob or Robert), Eddie, etc. That's so the chant can be two part, accent followed by non-accent or Kir-bee kir-bee...
Many a career has been ruined because of a single syllable name unsuitable to chanting. The only exceptions to the two-syllable rule are the "oooo" names and as you suggest, nobody really knows if folks are cheering or booing.
Babe Ruth may be the only exception to this rule, but I really don't know that fans chanted his name, although I'm pretty sure they never yelled "sultan of swat" as he came to the plate.
You don't think there were roaring cheers of "Geor-gie, Geor-gie, Geor-gie!" for Ruth?
Posted by: Erin at April 16, 2005 01:31 AMYeah, when Lou Merloni was playing for the Sox, it took me a few at-bats to realize the fans were shouting "Lou" and not "boo."
Posted by: shazam at April 20, 2005 10:57 AMOr Boog. Everytime Boog Powell came to the plate the crowd would, predictably, roar "Boooooooooooog". Well, you can imagine.
Considering, however, that Boog struck out 1226 times in his career some of those might actually have been actual boos.
(note: Shamelessly plagiarized from, if I remember correctly, Jim Bouton).
Posted by: James at May 6, 2005 03:17 PM