The finals! Who had the best nickname among current Hall of Famers? (Listed in order of vote percentage in preliminary rounds.)
| Willie "The Say Hey Kid" Mays |  36 (14.23%) |
| Ozzie "The Wizard of Oz" Smith" | 25 (9.88%) |
| Walter "The Big Train" Johnson | 30 (11.86%) |
| Ted "The Splendid Splinter" Williams | 26 (10.28%) |
| Cool Papa Bell | 45 (17.79%) |
| Catfish Hunter | 24 (9.49%) |
| Satchel Paige | 15 (5.93%) |
| Honus "The Flying Dutchman" Wagner | 13 (5.14%) |
| Reggie "Mr. October" Jackson | 23 (9.09%) |
| Babe Ruth | 16 (6.32%) |
253 votes | 5 featured comments
Here are the seven players who won the preliminary voting "heats" and the percentage of the vote they received, and the top three vote-getters, percentage-wise, among non-winners, to fill out our ballot.
Willie "The Say Hey Kid" Mays 44%
Ozzie "The Wizard of Oz" Smith" 42%
Walter "The Big Train" Johnson 38%
Ted "The Splendid Splinter" Williams 37%
Cool Papa Bell 35%
Catfish Hunter 28%
Satchel Paige 23%
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Honus "The Flying Dutchman" Wagner 23%
Reggie "Mr. October" Jackson 22%
Babe Ruth 16%
Just for the record, four players of the 70 whose nicknames were originally considered received, individually and combined, a total of exactly ZERO votes. These were:
Kiki Cuyler
Bid McPhee
Arky Vaughn
Lloyd "Little Poison" Waner
Willie "The Say Hey Kid" Mays 44%
Ozzie "The Wizard of Oz" Smith" 42%
Walter "The Big Train" Johnson 38%
Ted "The Splendid Splinter" Williams 37%
Cool Papa Bell 35%
Catfish Hunter 28%
Satchel Paige 23%
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Honus "The Flying Dutchman" Wagner 23%
Reggie "Mr. October" Jackson 22%
Babe Ruth 16%
Just for the record, four players of the 70 whose nicknames were originally considered received, individually and combined, a total of exactly ZERO votes. These were:
Kiki Cuyler
Bid McPhee
Arky Vaughn
Lloyd "Little Poison" Waner
He pitched well before my parents were even born, but "The Big Train" is about as cool of a nickname as you can possibly have.
Awesome ... every single candidate has at least five percent of the vote and nobody has more than 16 percent. I think that's evidence this sport has a wide variety of great nicknames!
When I was a kid, I saw Satchel Paige pitch at the against the AAA Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. He was probably in his 50's by then and still pitching well-a great memory of mine.
""The Big Train" is about as cool of a nickname as you can possibly have."
Unless your nickname IS "Cool"
Unless your nickname IS "Cool"