Nickname Guide

Edited for 2010. Now that Spring Training has started and the team is pretty much set, it's time to update the Nickname guide. Some folks made some great suggestions in the comments section, so I'll bring those up to the body. If you have ones you like, let me know.

When we love certain people, we show our affection by giving them, or using other people's, nicknames. Here are the ones I like to use; the source is listed in parenthesis.

Players/Personnel:
Ron Gardenhire - "Gardy" (everyone calls him Gardy)
Nick Punto - "Little Nicky Punto"/"LNP" (Bat-Girl)
Joe Nathan - "Nathanator" (I'm not completely sure, most likely Bat-Girl), "Twitch-n-Pitch" (have you watched him pitch?)
Joe Mauer - "Joey" (Twins Sisters), "The Contract" (No one can talk to or about Joe without mentioning the contract. He and it are working to become one.)
Michael Cuddyer - "Cuddy" (like Gardy, this one's obvious -- he's probably been called Cuddy his whole life)
Justin Morneau - "Mornie" (Gardy calls him that), "Tasty Canadian" (see comments below)
Matt Tolbert - "Tigger" (I came up with it when I shopped for toys for the boys)
Pat Neshek - "Pat-Pat" (I don't know -- could be me, could be one of Bat-Girl's commenters)
Francisco Liriano - "Franchise" (the Twins players call him that), "F-Bomb" (I think this has roots in Bat-Girl's blog)
Jesse Crain -"The Crainadian" (He's from Canada. I think this came from Lipgloss & Baseball)
Denard Span - "D-Span" (Get it? Like C-Span.), "Let's Get Denarded" (a take on the Black Eyed Peas song Let's Get it Started), "Span the Man" (S.Rail in comments below)
Delmon Young - "D.Y." (Initials -- not terribly creative)
Scott Baker - "Bake" (everyone), "Rocketbats" (Pulling a Blyleven - see the comments below), "Timmy" (Timothy Scott Baker is his given name -- he kind of looks like a "Timmy," doesn't he?)
Kevin Slowey - "K-Slo" (the first initial - first three letters of last name scheme, like A-Rod...or k-bro. S.Rail likes this one -- see the comments below)
Jose Mijares - "O Visa" (Foreign nationals with extraordinary ability in Sciences, Arts, Education, Business or Athletics must apply for an O visa, which Mijares kind of messed up for both TwinsFest and Spring Training -- *sigh*)
Carl Pavano - "Hott Carl" (The folks over at Twinkie Town took a vote and came up with this. mmmkaaay.)
Orlando Hudson - "O-Dog" (He comes with the name. If you type O-Dog into Wikipedia, it says that you're probably referring Orlando Hudson. Who am I to argue with Wikipedia?)

Former Twins:Carlos Gomez - "Go-Go" (Gardy)
Mike Redmond - "Red-Dog"/"Red" (another obvious one)
Mike Lamb - "Lammers" (Gardy)
Adam Everett - Adam "Adam" Everett (Mike Lamb -- he was asked if Everett had a nickname while with the Astros, and he replied, "yeah, I think they called him 'Adam'.")
Dennys Reyes - "Marshmallow" (my kid), "The Big Sweat" (I guess he's had it for a long time, but learned about it from an MLB Video Game), "Dennys Sampler Platter" (Bat-Girl)

Announcers:
Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven - Because they talk so much during games, it's sometimes hard to remember which of them said what. So, together, they're the singular "Dick-n-Bert."
Dan Gladden - "Dazzle" (I think John Gordon gave it to him)
Jack Morris - "Blackjack" (John Gordon again)

Things:
The act of being swept by another team - "Dustbunny" (me)