The Red Sox are coming, the Red Sox are coming ...
According to Sean Forman's BaseballReference.com, nearly 200 players in major league history have borne the nickname "Red," not including guys like Rusty Greer and Rick Sutcliffe, who were each tagged "The Red Baron," nor Doug "Red Rooster" Rader, not to mention the two Reddings, two Redferns, three Redmans, two Redmons, four Redmonds or the various guys with names like Redus and Reder.
But in a break from Hall of Names tradition, this team will only consider nicknames, rather than completely excluding them.
For the record, there has been one guy nicknamed "Sox" in MLB history, Carl "Sox" Husta, a shortstop who played six games in 1925 for, oddly enough, the Philadelphia A's. And there have been four players nicknamed "Socks," weirdly including one named Seibold and another named Seybold (they were not contemporaries).
Then, of course, there was Louis Francis "Chief" Sockalexis, for whom, legend has it, the Cleveland Indians were originally named. Note: it is apparentlly virtually illegal, or at least not in the best interests of baseball, to nickname a LHP of any type "Red." I suppose they all picked up clever monikers like "Lefty."
But this team, with three Hall of Famers and four other All-Stars, is (wait for it) ...
SIMPLY RED
**Hall of Famer
* All-Star
STARTING LINEUP
C Gene "Red" Desautels (.233, 1930-46)
1B Ralph "Red" Kress (mostly a SS; .286, 1927-46)
2B Albert "Red" Schoendienst** (player-manager - led STL in 1999 games)
SS John "Red" Corriden (.205, 1910-15)
3B Robert "Red" Rolfe* (NYY All-Star in '30s and '40s)
LF Wade "Red" Killefer (.248, seven seasons)
CF Al "Red" Wingo (.308, 1919-28)
RF Leo "Red" Nonnenkamp (.262 in 263 AB pre-WWII)
DH Rich "Red" Rollins* (voted All-Star as '62 MIN rookie)
BENCH
C Charles "Red" Dooin (.240, 1902-16)
2B/SS/3B Owen "Red" Friend (.227, 1949-56)
2B/SS/3B Johnny "Red" Rawlings (.250, 1914-26)
3B/OF James "Red" Smith (.278, 1911-19: best of 5 Red Smiths)
OF John "Red" Marion (four games in '35, 14 in '43)
OF Robert "Red" Worthington (.287, 1931-34)
UTIL John "Red" Kleinow (played every position for NYY, BOS, 1905-11)
ROTATION
RHSP Urban "Red" Faber** (254-213)
RHSP Charles "Red" Ruffing** (273-225)
RHSP Charles "Red" Barrett* (WWII 20-game winner)
RHSP Leon "Red" Ames (183-167)
RHSP Charles "Red" Lucas (157-135)
BULLPEN
CL Al "Red" Worthington (110 career saves, 1953-69)
RHRP George "Red" Munger (swing man for '40s STL)
RHRP Art "Red" Herring (11 years; greatest nickname EVER)
RHRP Jim "Red" McGlothlin* ('57 All-Star with Angels)
LHRP John "Red" Oldham (39-48, 1914-26)
Okay Bauxites, get out your blue pencils and white-out to fix this team up ... I'm sure you're seeing red at this point.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050408014053720