Taiwanese Nicknames for MLB Players
Inspired by our previous blog post about the Lamigo Monkeys’ nickname uniforms, we figured it would be fun to write about some of the unique MLB players’ nicknames by the Taiwanese baseball fans.
Bartolo Colon: 8-Headed Dragon
This is probably my all-time favourite Taiwanese nickname. In Mandarin, Bartolo sounds very similar to the 8-headed dragon (八頭龍 Ba-Tou-Long).
Corey Kluber: Uncle Skeleton
It’s another nickname using similar sound, Kluber sounds exactly like 骷髏伯 (Ku-Lou-Bo) which means Uncle Skeleton.
Albert Pujols: Bionic Man
Pretty self-explanatory with this one. Half man, half machine is the best way to describe the 17-year MLB veteran, three-time MVP Albert Pujols.
Yu Darvish: Vegeta
Yu Darvish’s name in kanji character is 達比修有 (Dar-Bi-Sho-Yu), and Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z name in Mandarin is called 達爾 (Dar-Er). So Taiwanese baseball fans just started calling Darvish as Vegeta since his NPB day.
Chi Chi Gonzalez + Didi Gregorius = Chip ‘n Dale
Now, this is a special one for people like me who grew up in Taiwan watching Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers in the early ’90s.
This nickname combo will only work when Chi Chi Gonzalez and Didi Gregorius face each other in the same game.
In Taiwan, the Disney cartoon characters Chip ‘n Dale are called Chi-Chi and Di-Di, and here is the Mandarin dub Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers theme song, at the 20 seconds mark of the video.
Some of the NSFW Nicknames
For obvious reason, we are not going to post any pictures of it. For this not safe for work part, we’ll try to keep it as classy to the best of our ability. If you are easily offended, this is where you should stop reading.
Now we got the explicit content warning out of the way. We will jump straight into it!
- Johnny Cueto: Tip of the penis (龜頭).
- Bruce Bochy: Erection (勃起).
- Josh Donaldson: Big breasts aunt (大奶嬸).
- Chen Wei-Yin: Emperor Yin (殷帝) but it sounds like clitoris in Mandarin.
