How They Got the Nickname: Moose
April 30th, 2012 by slangon
(I just found out today that Moose Skowron passed away last Friday. By coincidence I had been planning this post for about a week or two. What better way to pay tribute to a great old ball player than to share how he got his nickname.)
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.
Initially, I assumed that Bill Skowron was nicknamed Moose because he hit with some good power, so he was powerful like a moose. Apparently I was wrong. When Bill was seven years old, his grandfather gave him a haircut that resembled that of Benito Mussolini. As is often the case with kids, Bill’s friends jumped on the chance to ridicule his new hairdo and started to call him “Mussolini” and the nickname stuck. Eventually, it became shortened to “Moose”.
R.I.P., Moose.
Don Mattingly got his “Hit Man” moniker in a similar fashion due to a terrible mustache choice and a name shortening.