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Trivia: 1950s baseball nicknames

Posted By: Bill Riles
Date: Saturday, 28 March 2009, at 7:50 p.m.

In Response To: Trivia: 1950s baseball nicknames (Marv Porten)

I recognize most of the other nicknames but don't necessarily remember them by name; except, of course, as a fellow Texan I have to remember the Hondo Hurricane, Clint Hartung.

I refreshed my memory of his legacy just now with a quick Wikipedia review. It all came back.

He was perhaps one of the most hyped young players ever. He pitched for the US Army in WWII, didn't have to fight. And, playing mostly drafted pro players, he starred. He went 25-0 as a pitcher, averaged 15 strikeouts per game he pitched, and batted .567.

After WWII he was signed with great notoriety by the New York Giants. He was so touted one sportswriter supposedly said "they should just skip the Polo Grounds and just take him straight to Cooperstown". As is often the case, the Hondo Hurricane was but a brief summer shower in the pros -- fizzled out quickly with no lasting fame.

However, Bill James, the famous baseball statistician and historian, did create the Clint Hartung Award for the most over-hyped rookie of each decade -- and, naturally, the Hondo Hurricane was the recipient for the 1940's.

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