Nicknames on Baseball Cards

Interesting article on MLB.com about Hall of Famers with “fowl”nicknames.  It would be interesting to see how many of these Hall of Famers with birds in their nicknames have baseball cards that actually show their nicknames. 

 You would think that since “Goose” Gossage’s nickname is more associated with him than his first name (in baseball circles anyway, probably not at his house,) that most of his cards would show “Goose” on the card.  A quick look at his cards though, shows that many cards list his full name, Rich Gossage, without the “Goose.” 

In 2006, Fleer put out cards with “Nickname Greats,” in it’s Greats of the Game set.   Some of the cool nicknames you’ll find on these cards are:

• Doug “The Red Rooster” Rader
• Bill “Spaceman” Lee
• Fred “Chicken” Stanley
• Tommy “T-Bird” Herr
• Jimmy “The Toy Cannon” Wynn
• Mark “The Bird” Fidrych
• Rusty “Le Grand Orange” Staub
• Steve “Rainbow” Trout
• Will “The Thrill” Clark

Of these nicknames, I’d say “Le Grand Orange” is the most unique, followed closely by “The Toy Cannon.”  I guess those nicknames would be a little difficult to fit on the front of each baseball card, huh? 

They didn’t include Goose Gossage in this card set, and I’m not sure why.  It would have made sense with his pending Hall of Fame selection, which came through recently.