Curtis Granderson made a spectacular catch on Friday night, saving the game for Justin Verlander and the Tigers. There is an unfortunate by-product of this play though and that is the proliferation of a new moniker for Granderson. Unsatisfied with calling him by name, or even by Grandy, ESPN has taken it upon themselves to dub him “The Cougar.”
Intelligent commentary follows--check the link.
Listen, nicknames develop organically, they are not to be manufactured and peddled by ESPN or whoever just for the sake of it. Some names are not conducive to nicknames. Granderson is kind of one of those. I'll admit, "Grandy" is not the world's greatest nickname. But you know what? It's really not that bad. The important thing is that it is authentic--it is how he is addressed by his teammates. Now, you might end up with a genius like Ernie Harwell who can dub Todd Jones "The Rollercoaster," and it is usually the local announcers who create the lasting nicknames ("Michael Jack Schmidt", anyone?). So stay out of this ESPN. If all you see is one spectacular catch on your Top-10 you don't have the right to start handing out nicknames. Enough with "The Cougar." Yeah, its kind of clever (CuGr, get it?) but given its other, far more prevalent use in the parlance of our times, let's leave that one to Hollywood and Sunday double-features at The Apex, if you know what I mean.
