Book review: ‘Hall of Name’

The pandemic that swept across the world during 2020 put off a lot of things, including much of the baseball season.

Another thing it put off, for me, was reviewing a number of baseball books I’d received earlier this year.

Better late than never, then, I want to tell you about “Hall of Name,” D.B. Firstman’s clever, interesting, humorous and detailed look at baseball names.

It’s exactly what the subtitle states: “Baseball’s most magnificent monikers, from ‘The Only Nolan’ to ‘Van Lingle Mungo’ and more. Firstman follows the same format for writing about each of these names, beginning with their etymology, or word origin, and this is something you probably don’t think much about, but it’s…