tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985668569918053928.post4935128307595270400..comments2024-01-24T05:19:09.805-06:00Comments on This Game Of Games: Scientific WilliamJeffrey Kittelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02367989375750209078noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985668569918053928.post-35807365623152238622009-02-07T08:20:00.000-06:002009-02-07T08:20:00.000-06:00The merits of this particular nickname notwithstan...The merits of this particular nickname notwithstanding, I am not a fan of collecting colorful nicknames and putting them in the standard databases. This misrepresents contemporary reality. "Death to Flying Things" is clearly a different sort of creature than is "Babe", and "Dummy" or "Chief" are somewhere in between.<BR/><BR/>Did people actually call out, "Hey, Death to Flying Things!" at Ferguson? Of course not. They either called out "Hey, Bob!" or something unprintable (it being Ferguson, after all...).<BR/><BR/>Take another classic, Wes "Icicle" Fisler. Was "Icicle" real? Absolutely. I have seen several references to it from during his lifetime. But even so there is a retrospective air to it: talking about back in his playing days. I have never seen a casual contemporary usage, in the way you can find any number of casual uses of "Babe" Ruth.<BR/><BR/>There isn't a clear solution here. It would be faintly absurd for a database to insist on talking only about George Ruth. But going down that road you rapidly find a competition for finding ever more colorful, if rarely used, nicknames to add to the list. Then you end up with the vintage base ball crowd, where you pick a nickname for yourself and everyone has one. fehAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985668569918053928.post-83792859747335938392009-02-06T12:19:00.000-06:002009-02-06T12:19:00.000-06:00I think that I like Cientific Bill better than Sci...I think that I like Cientific Bill better than Scientific William but it's a tough call. No information on how the nickname originated but I assumed it had to do with his style of play-smart, scientific baseball, etc. Not sure if that term would have been used at the time but that's what comes to mind. <BR/><BR/>Still, Death to Flying Things has to be the best nickname of all time.Jeffrey Kittelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02367989375750209078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985668569918053928.post-11336528130865666952009-02-06T10:14:00.000-06:002009-02-06T10:14:00.000-06:00Yes, all the fuss everybody makes about "Death to ...Yes, all the fuss everybody makes about "Death to Flying Things," and yet this wonderful nickname is completely forgotten. I have sometimes seen it in the Cincinnati Enquirer as "Cientific Bill." I would love to know where it came from and what it meant.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com