A lot of baseball players have nicknames, many of them given by teammates, others by managers, sports broadcasters, etc. It doesn’t matter how you get it, but you’ll probably be known for better or worse by your nickname rather than your real name.

Earlier this month, I saw an article from Booth Newspapers’ Steve Kornacki that talked about how some Tigers’ relivers have given each other nicknames. Brayan Villarreal for example is called Zorro, Ricky Martin and Benicio del Toro.

Ryan Perry, who was placed on the Disabled List earlier this year with an eye infection is called “Cyclops”. Al Alburquerque is called “Avatar”, because apparently he looks like a character from the James Cameron motion picture “Avatar”.

Jose Valverde was already known as “Papa Grande” and Daniel Schlereth said he could be called “the Alaskan Assassin”. The team is looking nicknames for Brad Thomas and Joaquin Benoit.

Other famous players with nicknames include George Herman Ruth “The Bambino”, Lou Gehrig “The Iron Horse”, Joe DiMaggio “Yankee Clipper”, Hank Aaron “Hammer”, Reggie Jackson “Mr. October”, Cal Ripken Jr. “Iron Man”, to name a few.

Recently we’ve learned nicknames like “El Hombre” for Albert Pujols, “A-Rod” for Alex Rodriguez and “The Freak” for Tim Lincecum.

Freddy Garcia is called “The Chief”, Adam Dunn “Big Donkey”, Jarrod Saltalamacchia “Salty”, Larry Walker “Booger”. Recently, we learned according to our reliable sources, Angels first baseman Mark Trumbo is called “Trumbo Tron”.

In Spanish it’s no different, we have nicknames for a lot of players. I’ll list some names with their nicknames and explain what it means.

Johan Santana is called “El Gocho” in Venezuela, because he comes from a state in Venezuela where everybody is referred as to “Gochos”. Mariano Rivera is called “Apaga y Vamonos”, in English “Turn it off and let’s go”, referring to the fact that when he comes into play the game is almost over.

Carlos Zambrano is called “El Toro”, “The Bull” in English. Adrian Gonzalez is called “El Titan”, in English “The Titan”. Bobby Abreu is called “El come dulce”, in English “Candy eater”, why? I really don’t know.

If you have more nicknames please share it with us via comment or tweet.

Image via Herkie under the Creative Commons license.