Rockies' nicknames for Players' Weekend
DENVER -- Players' Weekend is in its third year. So during the coming weekend¡¯s series against the Cardinals, players will be in youth league-inspired uniform designs with colorful nicknames.
Here are nicknames for the Rockies.
Yonder Alonso: "MR. 305"
Fitting for a guy from Miami.
Nolan Arenado: "NADO"
Last year, he said he was going to change things up at some point. He didn¡¯t get around to it.
¡°I got a little lazy on that one,¡± Arenado said. ¡°I might just leave it as it is. Everybody knows me by that now, and people call me that.¡±
Charlie Blackmon: "CHUCK NAZTY"
Of course. The four-time All-Star was an early social media participant who adopted @Chuck_Nazty as his moniker for a tongue-in-cheek tough guy presence.
Wade Davis: "WADER"
Yonathan Daza: "CANANA"
¡°That¡¯s the name of my neighborhood in Maracaibo, Venezuela,¡± said Daza, an outfielder who debuted this season. ¡°That¡¯s where I¡¯m from. That's where I was raised and where I began to play ball. It's a part of the city that's very dangerous. Not many baseball players come out of there. And I think that it's an honor for me to have that as my nickname.¡±
Ian Desmond: "DESI"
Jairo Diaz: "EL PANDA"
His body somewhat resembles a younger version of Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval.
¡°In 2015, a Dominican friend called me ¡®Baby Panda,¡¯ and that¡¯s how it started,¡± Diaz said. ¡°Like Sandoval. I like the nickname.¡±
Kyle Freeland: "F. STANLEY"
¡°When I was growing up there was an elementary school project, Flat Stanley,¡± said Freeland, a lefty starting pitcher. ¡°My friends would call me that when I was growing up -- they still call me that to this day because I was skinny growing up, small guy.¡±
Chi Chi Gonzalez: "CHI CHI"
His real first name is Alexander. The nickname came from his great uncle.
Jon Gray: "(WOLF EMOJI)"
His Twitter handle (now rarely used) is @MrGrayWolf22, with 22 being his number at the University of Oklahoma. His Rockies number is 55 -- 22 flipped vertically in most fonts. When he arrived in the Majors, then-Rockies manager Walt Weiss occupied 22, which he also wore during his playing days.
Garrett Hampson: "G HAMP"
Peter Lambert: "LAMBO"
¡°It doesn¡¯t mean anything to me,¡± said Lambert, a rookie right-handed starter. ¡°Just kinda what everybody tends to call me.¡±
German Marquez: "MARQUEE"
Jake McGee: "MAC CHEEZ"
Ryan McMahon: "RY MAC"
Daniel Murphy: "MURPH"
Bryan Shaw: "GEEK"
He¡¯s a tech guy, always playing around with electronics. During the winter, he combined tech and pitching when he went to Driveline, a performance analysis and workout facility near Seattle and developed a curveball that has helped on many occasions this season.
Trevor Story: "TRUE"
Story has seen puns with his name pretty much all his life. But the nickname from another former Rockies All-Star, Vinny Castilla, who works for the club as a special front-office advisor, made it to the back of his jersey this year.
¡°I was hitting in the cage, I think it was my first big league Spring Training and he was like, ¡®That¡¯s True Story hitting right there,¡¯¡± Story said. ¡°So it just kinda stuck. I liked it.¡±
Raimel Tapia: "EL FIFTY"
¡°When I was little I listened to a lot of songs from the rapper 50 Cent,¡± Tapia said in Spanish through an interpreter. ¡°When I was little, I didn't understand the words and my friends would ask me why I listened to that if I couldn't understand it. I just told them that I liked the rhythm of the music and that¡¯s why that name stuck.¡±
Jesus Tinoco: "TINO"
Tony Wolters: "(PAPER EMOJI)"
The Rockies claimed Wolters off waivers from the Indians early in Spring Training 2016. He was the classic new guy.
¡°I go into the locker room the first day in Spring Training, and, I wanted to go up and introduce myself, but I didn¡¯t even know who the pitchers from position players were because they all had bats,¡± Wolters said. ¡°I wasn¡¯t used to pitchers having bats. I had my wife help me study the pitchers.
¡°Then throughout the season I was with [veteran catcher] Nick Hundley, and I had this stack of papers all the time trying to learn the league. Nick helped me through that. ¡®Cargo¡¯ [Carlos Gonzalez] and [Gerardo] Parra come up with the nickname, ¡®Papers.¡¯
¡°My whole locker was full of papers and my chair was full of papers. It still is. I was just a mess with papers. It kind of stuck, and everyone calls me ¡®Papers¡¯ now.¡±