The best player nicknames in Mets history

The New York Mets have had a few players over the years who have carried some pretty familiar monikers. Nicknames in baseball is rather common…almost a tradition.

In the early days of Mets baseball there was Marvelous Marv Throneberry, Choo Choo Coleman, Hot Rod Kanehl, The Duke of Flatbush…Duke Snider. And they were led by the Old Professor…Casey Stengel.

Dave Kingman arrived and after he sent some moon shots out of Shea Stadium, he was referred to as Sky King or Kong. The 1986 Mets had Mex, Kid, Straw, Doc, and Nails…Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter, Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, and Lenny Dykstra.

And eventually there were even some super heroes taking the mound at Citifield - The Dark Knight and Thor, before Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard apparently had their powers stripped from them.

Fans know and recognize all of them. But here are the five New York Mets with nicknames that fans immediately, and for good reason, associate specifically with them:

Ed Charles – The Glider

Charles is one of the most beloved players in New York Mets history. He didn’t spend a lot of time as a player – 1968 and 1969 – but he was a part of the organization long after his playing career concluded following the 1969 World Series celebration.

Charles was near the end of his career when he joined a young Mets team. He had gotten a late start in his career, not arriving in the Major Leagues until the age of 29. Which is unfortunate because he was a talented player with a combination of power and speed…regularly recording double digit totals in home runs and stolen bases. And although his stats with the Mets were not on par with what they had been earlier in his career, he was very clutch and very smooth.

Smooth. When Jerry Koosman watched how smooth he was in the field in 1968, he remarked how he looked like he was “gliding.” And that’s all it takes. From that point on he became known as “The Glider.” And because of his clutch hitting, and his ability to crush a slider that didn’t break, his teammates began saying, “Never hang a slider to The Glider.

John Milner – The Hammer

Known more for the many talented young arms brought along in the organization, John Milner was one of the first home-grown power hitters drafted and to come up to the New York Mets. Milner idolized Hank Aaron…Hammerin’ Hank Aaron. His teammates early on recognized Milner’s raw power and, knowing his love for Aaron, tagged him with “The Hammer.”

Fans today would probably look at Milner’s stats and scratch their heads. In his first three full seasons in a Mets uniform – 1972, 1973, 1974 – Milner would hit a total of 60 home runs (17, 23, 20 respectively). When you realize that the Mets had very few players with any kind of power (Frank Thomas hit 34 in 1962 and Tommie Agee hit 26 in 1969), it’s not so laughable to be called “The Hammer.”

Milner was a huge part of the 1973 team. And he was a valuable commodity…until Dave Kingman came along in 1975, a season in which he got hurt and was limited to 91 games. A seasons later, and still in his 20’s, the Mets unceremoniously shipped him off to Pittsburgh where he never could match his prolific home run production he displayed with the Mets.

Pete Alonso – The Polar Bear

Pete Alonso has been on a path to re-write the New York Mets record books since he arrived. The Mets have had a few pure home run hitters – Dave Kingman, Darryl Strawberry, and Mike Piazza. But none of them has had the sheer power displayed by Alonso.

Alonso brings a presence to the field, to the clubhouse, wherever he goes. He has earned a reputation for clobbering home runs from the very start, setting the Major League rookie record by hitting 53 round-trippers in 2019. It was during that first spring training that teammate Todd Frazier said he looked like a “big stinking polar bear.” And, teammates, of course, latched onto it, the media grabbed hold, and then once Alonso began his barrage of homers, the fans ran with it.

Polar Bear…kind of an unusual tag for a kid from the University of Florida…a Gator. Nonetheless, Alonso has hit 192 home runs in his four plus seasons with the Mets (including the short 2020 season) and shows no signs of slowing down.

Tom Seaver – The Franchise

A lot of athletes have nicknames. But name one other player…other than George Thomas Seaver…called “The Franchise.” You can’t. There has been no other player that has meant so much to an organization that they can take on a name that they actually ARE the franchise.

David Wright certainly earned the respect bestowed upon him, but Seaver? He was special. His fellow Hall of Famers have said it. His former teammates have all said…whether they were Mets, Reds, White Sox, or Red Sox. And it’s hard to say Reds, White Sox, and Red Sox in the same sentence with the name Tom Seaver. But it happened.

Seaver won 311 games in his career, 198 of them with the Mets…he still holds that record and probably always will. Another record that he holds…that you can bet will NEVER be broken? How about 171 complete games. Think about that.

Tom Seaver was also referred to as “Tom Terrific” by the media. And when some other “Tom” (Tom Brady) attempted to trademark “Tom Terrific” a few years ago, he was denied by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. You know why. Because, they said, it “may falsely suggest a connection with Tom Seaver…”

That’s because there could only be one Tom Terrific just like there is only one player, one athlete, ever referred to affectionately as “The Franchise.” Go try to trademark THAT one!