The Low Self-Esteem Club

Imagine starting your first job and your co-workers christen you with a new name. You become Creepy, Cuckoo, or Tomato Face. Before long, your nickname spreads from the workplace into the public sphere. Your true first name slowly fades away. Would you have enough self-esteem to repudiate the unflattering nickname before it's too late? In the first half-century of professional baseball, almost every player in the minor or major leagues had a nickname. A large number of these nicknames served to glorify the skills, personalities and appearance of the owners. A great many players embraced the nicknames given to them during, and importantly, after their careers ended. Some wore their new names to the grave. Many of the nicknames bestowed upon players were unflattering if not downright insulting, such as Fatty, Shorty, Piggy, Pussy, etc. Many players fought to shed their new monikers, but a surprising number of players made little or no effort to reclaim the name their parents gave them. The Low Self-Esteem Club drills down into baseball history to spotlight these individuals. This book identifies over 125 of those players, explains the origins of the names, and presents a brief biography. The nicknames are broken down into categories that attempt to explain how and why the renaming took place: physical appearance, personality, skill sets, racial/ethnic background, etc. Hop in the "wayback machine" and have some fun.
About the Author: C. Terry Walters to date has written four books that initially appeared to be about sports. As the third and fourth projects began to take shape, he realized that a subtler theme had evolved. Each book involves redemption of a sort. The first effort was a hybrid of fiction and non-fiction called Diamond Redemptions. Nine true baseball scenarios were re-imagined to provide a more satisfying result to the author. The second book chronicled the rise and fall of Charlie Wysocki, a college football All-American who succumbed to mental illness as he was knocking on the door of the NFL. Saddle Up, Charlie tells the story of Wysocki's rebirth after 25 years of hospitalizations in mental facilities. The Lost Haven of Sharon Taylor exposes the facts behind her shocking removal from her position of Director of Athletics at a Lock Haven University and allows her to tell her side of the story. Finally, The Low Self-Esteem Club due for release in the late spring of 2016, explains the psychology behind the acceptance of unflattering (and sometimes insulting) baseball nicknames adopted by players who went through all of their career and much of their remaining lives saddled with names like Piggy, Creepy, Fatty, etc. These players are rescued from obscurity and given a fresh 15 minutes of fame.