Book Excerpt: Hall of Name: Baseball's Most Magnificent Monikers from 'The Only Nolan' to 'Van Lingle Mungo' and More

Hall of Name: Baseball's Most Magnificent Monikers from 'The Only Nolan' to 'Van Lingle Mungo' and More

With this, our fourth in the 'Inside the Dodgers' book excerpt series, we're pleased to share this fun one, "Hall of Name: Baseball's Most Magnificent Monikers from 'The Only Nolan' to 'Van Lingle Mungo' and More," by D.B. Firstman.

Author's description: “Hall of Name” pays homage to some of the great "names" in the history of this great game. We’re not talking about the best “players”, nor the best “nicknames”, but the best given names to ever suit up. Each player profile features the following:

· general demographic information (name they played under, their full name at birth, date of birth/death, years active in the majors, positions played, etc.)

· etymology/definition of each part of their given name

· baseball biography (generally, how they made it to the majors, what they did while they were there)

· best day (a recap of a great day in their major league career)

· the wonder of his name (why his name is memorable)

· not to be confused with (names that sound and/or look like the player's name)

· fun anagrams (anagrams of their given names, just because)

· ephemera (factoids, tidbits, trivia about the player, details regarding their parents, their family and their life after baseball)

Book Excerpt: Hall of Name: Baseball's Most Magnificent Monikers from 'The Only Nolan' to 'Van Lingle Mungo' and More, by D.B. Firstman

Excerpt begins here: 

BILLY JO ROBIDOUX - Of the Massachusetts’ Robidouxs?

BIRTH NAME: William Joseph Robidoux

PRONUNCIATION OF DIFFICULT PARTS: Roe-ba-dough

NICKNAME: None

HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6’1” 200 lbs.

BORN: Jan. 13, 1964, in Ware, Massachusetts

POSITIONS: First Baseman, Leftfielder

YEARS ACTIVE IN THE MAJORS: 1985-1990

NAME ETYMOLOGY/DEFINITIONS: “William” is a popular given name of an old Germanic origin and a derivative of “Wilhelm.” It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is derived from the Germanic wil (meaning “will” or “desire”) and helm (meaning “helmet” or “protection”). “Joseph” originates from Hebrew. The name can be translated from Hebrew yosef as signifying “Yahweh/Jehovah shall increase/add.” In the New Testament there are two men named Joseph: 1) Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus; and, 2) Joseph of Arimathea, a secret disciple of Jesus who supplied the tomb in which Jesus was buried. The form “Joseph” is used mostly in English, French and German-speaking countries. “Robidoux” is a French name probably from an altered form of the personal name “Robardeau,” a pet form of “Robert.” The first Robidoux recorded in Canada was from Burgos in Spain and seems to have been present in Canada from around 1664. He bore the secondary surname L’Espagnol. Growing up in Cape Cod, Robidoux’s father lived next door to a guy named “Billy Joe” and, liking the name (and possibly the rareness of it in that part of the country), named his son that. Billy Jo dropped the “e” from “Joe” to make signing autographs easier and faster (really).

Billy Jo Robidoux was selected by the Brewers in the 6th round of the 1982 Amateur Draft out of Ware H.S. in Massachusetts. Billy Jo reported to Pikeville in the rookie Appalachian League that summer, slashing .287/.389/.359 in 54 games but showing little power.

The next season at Beloit (Single-A Midwest League), Robidoux showed more pop, banging out 30 doubles and ten home runs in a .317/.424/.460 season. In 1984, Robidoux played at Single-A California League entry Stockton, hitting .279/.387/.384 in 401 plate appearances.

That set up his 1985 season at AA El Paso, where the 21-year-old was almost 2½ years younger than league average. Billy Jo pummeled the ball, helped by Dudley Field, one of the top hitting parks in the minor leagues. He played in 133 of 136 games and smacked out league-leading totals in several categories: runs scored (111), hits (176), doubles (46), RBI (132), batting average (.342), and total bases (297). He finished second in the league with 23 home runs, 97 walks, and a 1.020 OPS. Not surprisingly, he earned the Texas League Most Valuable Player award. The Diablos had the best overall record (86-50) but lost to the Jackson Mets in the championship series.

Robidoux made his major league debut for the Brewers on Sep. 11, 1985, pinch-hitting in the eighth inning against the Yankees’ Rich Bordi. (He popped up to second baseman Rex Hudler.) He played 18 games that season for Milwaukee, hitting .176/.333/.392 in 63 trips to the plate.

The burly first baseman began the ’86 campaign with Milwaukee and had a great start, going 21-for-63 in April, hitting .333/.456/.460, but ended up splitting the season between Milwaukee and the minors, playing 56 games for the Brewers (.227/.344/.287) and 37 games with Beloit and El Paso. Robidoux went back and forth between Milwaukee and in the minors for the next two seasons.

Moving on to the White Sox organization in 1989, Robidoux had a decent season in at AAA Vancouver (.317/.404/.545 in 73 games) but played in only 16 contests for the White Sox. The Red Sox picked him up for the 1990 season, when he split his time between AAA Pawtucket and Boston. At the end of that season he was released and retired from baseball.

In six major league seasons, Robidoux played in 173 games and made 547 plate appearances, hitting .209/.313/.286. He was a good line drive hitter with good patience (71 walks) but could never translate his minor league success to the major league level, perhaps due to a lingering knee injury. Robidoux had been signed by longtime scout Tom Bourque, who stated in a 2008 interview with Baseball Prospectus: “Billy Jo was a big, thick-bodied guy, and if he had signed five years later, they would have had him with a personal trainer. What he would do is go home, just like everybody else back then, after the baseball season and not work out, and then go like crazy in January. His problem was that he got tight, and it led to some injuries. If he’d have signed a few years later, he probably would have had a better career, because he would have taken care of his body better.”

BEST DAY (BY WPA OR OTHER MEASURE): On Oct. 6, 1985 he went 2-4 with two homers and four RBI in a 9-6 Brewers win.

THE WONDER OF HIS NAME: Guys named Billy Jo are the types you imagine having a couple of cold ones with at the corner watering hole. But you don’t often find Billy Jo’s in Massachusetts. Combine that with the rhyming of “Jo,” “Ro” and “doux” in rapid succession, and you have a moniker full of joy for public address announcers and fans alike. Given the French origins of his last name, one wonders if, upon hearing about being drafted by Milwaukee, he might have exclaimed “Merci, Brew Crew!” Through 2018, he is one of only 13 major leaguers in history with at least 15 alphabetic letters in his “playing name” to have neither an A or an E in it. (The others are: Robinson Chirinos, Fritz Von Kolnitz, Scott Munninghoff, Billy Southworth, Bobby Livingston, Jimmy Bloodworth, Jimmy Uchrinscko, John-Ford Griffin, Johnny Grodzicki, Johnny Hutchings, Johnny Ostrowski and Julius Willigrod).

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH: Billy Joe Hobert (Former NFL quarterback and one-time minor league player with the White Sox), Joseph Robidoux (Established the Blacksnake Hills Trading Post that eventually developed as the town of St. Joseph, Missouri), Rope-a-dope (Boxing fighting style commonly associated with Muhammad Ali in his 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” match against George Foreman).

FUN ANAGRAMS: “William Joseph Robidoux” turns into “Jail buxom Polish weirdo!”

EPHEMERA: 1) Of Robidoux’s name, Dan Duquette, the Brewers scouting director, said, “That’s a big-league name, a major league name … That’s what everyone liked about him when we drafted him.” 2) He is the only person from Ware H.S. to ever be drafted by a major league team and is the only Robidoux to ever play professional baseball. 4) As of 2010, he was working for the highway department in his hometown and umpiring high school baseball games. 5) Robidoux was elected to the Western Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame in 2017.

By day, D.B. Firstman is a Data Analyst for the City of New York, crunching large datasets using SPSS and Excel. D.B. has been a member of SABR off and on since the late 1980s. Besides the baseball blog, Value Over Replacement Grit, D.B.’s work has appeared at ESPN.com, Bronx Banter, Baseball Prospectus, The Hardball Times, and in The Village Voice. D.B.’s research on the origins of the “Three True Outcomes” in baseball (home runs, strikeouts, and bases on balls) was included in the Spring 2018 edition of the SABR Baseball Research Journal, with an accompanying poster presentation on the subject winning an award at that year’s national convention.

“Hall of Name” is available at Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com and your local independent bookstore.