How They Got the Nickname: Goose
March 26th, 2012 by slangon
One of my favorite things about the history of baseball, is how awesome some of the nicknames players have sported throughout the years are. Some nicknames are pretty self explanatory, like when a southpaw is named “Lefty” or a guy from Texas is called “Tex”. I’ve always been intrigued by nicknames that are a little harder to comprehend, so I tried to go out and find why those guys are called what they’re called.
Rather than being a play on his last name, Rich “Goose” Gossage got his nickname from former White Sox teammate Tom Bradley. Bradley took one look at the way that Gossage stuck his neck out when looking in for the signs from the catcher and decided that he resembled a goose on the mound.
He is one of 2 “Gooses” (“Geese”?) enshrined in the Hall of Fame, the other being Leon “Goose” Goslin. You would also think that Goslin got his nickname because of his last name, but he didn’t. Apparently, Goose had trouble judging fly balls and other players thought he resembled a bird flapping his wings as he would try to track down the ball while flapping his arms.
Well, at least his name isn’t Merkle.