Seattle really upset about Felix being called King Felix? Really??

[glenn__davis]

I always thought King Felix was an historical name - like, there was some famous king named Felix and that's where the "King Felix" nickname for Hernandez came from.  And so, just about anyone named Felix, the "King Felix" moniker would be appropriate.  Kind of like how everyone named Dan is "Dan the Man".

However, when I search up King Felix, Hernandez is the first thing that pops up.  Not really seeing any historical references to a King Felix.  Am I missing it?

[spiritof66]

Strange things can happen when the All-Star breaks gives media types and fans too much spare time without actual ballgames to watch and say things about, including lots of dumb things. (I am right up there in the "dumb things" category.)

The suggestion that there can be only one "King Felix" -- not even one King Felix at a time, but one King Felix period -- falls right into that category of "No games today. What is there to bitch about?" And by the way, the Felix Hernandez that I remember, thanks to recency bias, was no great shakes. He couldn't even land a spot with the 2021 Orioles. But that's beside my point, which I just remembered: nobody has exclusive rights to these nicknames, and at least to me anyone who says or implies that they do comes off sounding at best a little silly and at worst like a whiny jerk. 

There are only so many names to go around, and it's just in the nature of things that they get recycled. That's certainly true of "King." Long before Felix Hernandez, there were major league stars like King Kelly, Silver KIng, King Kong Keller and Dave Kingman, not to mention Sky King, the Los Angeles Kings, all the King Henrys, Richards, Georges of England and kings in other countries. (The latter groups may have had special rights to the use of "King," since for all I know you could get your head cut off if you called them names like Hank or Ricky or Georgie Boy.)

Lots of Felixes played in MLB besides Felix Hernandez. I remember in particular Mantilla, Pie and Millan (not to be confused with Clyde "Deerfoot" Milan, with one "l", and by the way when your name is Clyde you should get to be moved up in the line for nicknames).  I just learned that Tippy Martinez was a Felix, too. Did Felix Hernandez ever pick off three baserunners in an inning? I don't think so. Felix the Cat is more famous than Felix Hernandez will ever be. The same might be true of Felix Unger.

If the non-Hernandez use of "King Felix" bothers Seattlers or Seattleonians or whatever they're called, I can only imagine how upset they must be by all the ballplayers, in other sports as well as baseball, who use "Junior" in their names. If anyone deserves exclusivity for his nickname, wouldn't it be an all-time great like Junior Griffey? Some even put "Junior" or an abbreviation of it on the backs of their uniforms, even  on those brand-new City Connect uniforms that teams other than the NYYs have to wear and that everyone is so crazy about. (Now there's a brilliant idea that meets head-on the criticisms of baseball, almost as much as giving a variety of streaming services exclusive access to some of the most appealing games. Way to go, MLB.)

Likewise, it shouldn't be a big deal to call King Felix "Babe" Bautista "The Mountain," even though the world is full of a probably-uncountable number of mountains. While the only ballplayer I know of with a similar nickname is Cliff "Mountain Music" Melton, I've never  heard about any of the mountains or their proponents lie the Sierra Club or the National Parks Service complaining about Bautista'a nickname. Our highest mountain is Denali in Alaska, which they told us in school was called Mount McKinley, after one of our least distinguished presidents, but apparaently someone, maybe mountain-obsessed fans of the erstwhile Seattle Raniers, pointed out that McKinley had never even been to Alaska, so they changed it, much like Constantinople and Istanbul. Denali is quite an impressive mountain, but unless you like to climb nearby mountains in dense fog to get near it you can't even see it nine days out of ten -- believe me, I've tried. I'm also not aware of any protest to "Mountain" Bautista from the pre-heavy metal band "Mountain" or their fans. That may have something to do with the fact that the band has been defunct for decades and its leaders, Leslie West and Felix Pappalardi -- another famous Felix!) -- are dead, but maybe not. 

Somewhere in this string someone mentioned Cal "Iron Man" Ripken. It seems odd to me to bring up a guy who took most of his name verbatim from another Cal Ripken (even though Iron-Man-to-be was only a baby at the time). I can't speak for other Oriole fans, but I wouldn't be bothered if sometime in the future another player were known as Iron Man -- if he earned that name, which seems unlikely in today's game. And I don't remember any hue and cry -- in fact, I don't remember either a  hue or a cry -- when Ripken's nickname was poached directly from Hall of Famer pitcher Joe "Iron Man"  McGinnity and less directly from Lou "The Iron Horse" Gehrig or original Oriole Clint "Scrap Iron" Courtney. Maybe  some fans think Ripken should have been known as "Tungsten Man" or "Titanium Man" since "Iron Man" was taken and those other materials don't rust, but I don't remember hearing that.

As is often the case, it's hard to puncture the "There can be only one King Felix" contention better than baseball fan Groucho Marx did when Warner Brothers threatened to sue over the the Marx Brothers' use of "Casablanca" in the title of their film (as movies used to be called) "A Night in Casablanca." I try to steal from the Marx Brothers whenever I can, notwithstanding the antipathy towards them for tending to make a mockery of the socialist theoretician Karl Marx and the now-defunct Marx Toy Company. Here's a link to Groucho's famous letter:  https://glintoflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Groucho_Marx_Letters_to_Warner_Brothers.pdf   Unrelated but too good to ignore, here is a photo of a few memnbers of the Marx Brothers baseball team in the 1920s: https://www.instagram.com/p/BWpqp-KjjD-/

Let the games resume. Soon. Please. I know the schedule says they'll be back on Friday, but John Angelos said he'd be opening the Orioles' books next week, and we're still waiting for that.

 

 

[Jim'sKid26]

Should we be indignant about the fact that Caleb John Raleigh goes by "Cal?"

 

As a side note, his well documented nick name is "the Big Dumper...." just thought you ought to know.

[Number5]

31 minutes ago, spiritof66 said:

As is often the case, it's hard to puncture the "There can be only one King Felix" contention better than baseball fan Groucho Marx did when Warner Brothers threatened to sue over the the Marx Brothers' use of "Casablanca" in the title of their film (as movies used to be called) "A Night in Casablanca." I try to steal from the Marx Brothers whenever I can, notwithstanding the antipathy towards them for tending to make a mockery of the socialist theoretician Karl Marx and the now-defunct Marx Toy Company. Here's a link to Groucho's famous letter:  https://glintoflight.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Groucho_Marx_Letters_to_Warner_Brothers.pdf   Unrelated but too good to ignore, here is a photo of a few memnbers of the Marx Brothers baseball team in the 1920s: https://www.instagram.com/p/BWpqp-KjjD-/

Groucho's letters are hilarious.  Thanks.

[Number5]

[FlipTheBird]

Meh. The social media team called him King Felix in one post. Our PBP guy said it once. Who cares? It's more of a nod to Felix Hernandez than it is appropriating his nickname - there have been a million "clever" one-off variations of "The House that..." and they're all literal nods to Ruth and the Yankees.

The only weird part about it was this guy confronting Felix, who has no say in the social media and almost certainly had never seen that particular post.

[Yardball85]

Pathetic move by the Seattle DJ to a really nice, humble man in King Felix. Love all the trolling and people calling him King Felix even more now (as I did as well in the thread).

Here is an article I wrote about Adley's night in the Derby, with a tongue in cheek reference to King Felix, because, well, "Softy" sucks. 

https://birdswatcher.com/posts/adley-rutschman-eliminated-in-first-round-of-home-run-derby-despite-standout-performance-01h518zxg6hm?fbclid=IwAR04i6u9TOkeoiaF8Nie-q3dUKfB5HkGrkuKP3A-U8VIOJNwMVdVN7oMo8w

[Yardball85]

Bottom line:  The Orioles social media team took a playful dig at the Mariners after our Felix saved a game against them.  It's all in good fun, and for the Mariners to act so butt-hurt over it is ridiculous.  If another team beat the Orioles, and their social media team called a player of theirs "Iron Man," I'd laugh it off as annoying and move on with my day.  That is what the Mariners and their crybaby radio host should have done.

[Sports Guy]

 

[Jagwar]

I wonder if the Seattle fans felt some sort of karma-tic satisfaction when the Mountain hung a forkball last night to give up the game winning HR. 

[sportsfan8703]

32 minutes ago, Jagwar said:

I wonder if the Seattle fans felt some sort of karma-tic satisfaction when the Mountain hung a forkball last night to give up the game winning HR. 

The average Seattle fan probably didn’t even know who Feliz Bautista was. I even had to click on a couple of the relievers last night and browse through their MLB profiles to see who they were. 

Bautista looked out of sorts last night. He didn’t look warmed up. Throwing 97?  Into the 2nd batter?  The big guy doesn’t look like that. 

Thankfully, Dusty Baker pulled him after 28 pitchers. Cano struggled a little too. Vlad Jr making an error costing him more pitches. 

Who cares about that “game”?  A game where the AL pinch hit for their 1-3 in the lineup for a journeyman 2B,  retiring C, and a rule 5 guy having a nice season. 

[sportsfan8703]

Did anyone else watch that game and say to themselves “can’t wait to see Hyde managing the AL team next year”?  
 

What a story that will be. 

[Babkins]

20 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I'm more annoyed by the Basquiat rip-off crown being used here.  

Good catch!

[25 Nuggets]

Great.  Now this utterly stupid scenario, conjured from thin air by Kevin Brown and some random guy from Seattle, has me worried about Bautista's state of mind as a closer.

[sportsfan8703]

35 minutes ago, 25 Nuggets said:

Great.  Now this utterly stupid scenario, conjured from thin air by Kevin Brown and some random guy from Seattle, has me worried about Bautista's state of mind as a closer.

He hung a split.  If anything this is a learning scenario for him and Adley.  If his command is a little off like last night, they should maybe stick to fastballs or make sure he bounces the split.