Nicknames take a player beyond just their job on the field and into a larger world. A nickname is memorable. It’s remarkable. It’s a way to create a new honor outside the formal bounds of the baseball diamond. And baseball has a lot of nicknames, not confined to Red Sox, some are very hard to forget:
Big Papi.
The Freak.
The Splendid Splinter.
Death to Flying Things.
The Password.
The Big Unit.
Country Breakfast.
Pronk.
The Greek God of Walks.
The Muddy Chicken (well, maybe not).