Query: "Radio" as a 1913 nickname

[Gerald Cohen]

    After I sent out my query yesterday on "Radio" as a 1913 nickname
for a speedy baseball player, I belatedly checked a standard
reference work:  Paul Dickson's _New Dickson Baseball Dictionary_.
There are two relevant items here, even though they pertain to a
later era:

1) "RADIO BALL --  a fastball that can be heard but supposedly not
seen. Synonym: RADIO PITCH.--Etymology: Attributed to Roy Sievers who
in 1955 or 1956 deemed Herb Score's quick strikes to be radio balls.
The term also is attributed to George 'Catfish' Metkovich who in the
early 1950s deemed Max Surkont's fastballs to be radio balls."
2)"RADIO PITCH -- a. Synonym of RADIO BALL. b. (softball pitch) A
pitch in fast pitch softball that batters can hear, but can't see.
The term has been used to describe the fastball of Debbie Doom of El
Monte, Calif., who dominated play at the August 1991 Pan-American
Games in Cuba where she hurled two perfect games in two outings.  The
Cuban fans called her 'La Supersonica' ('The Supersonic')."

     So, if this thinking is transposed back to 1913, the S.F. Seals'
speedster, Jimmy Johnston, was presumably nicknamed "Radio" because
he could be heard as he zoomed around the bases but (hyperbolically)
couldn't be seen.

----Gerald Cohen

>    Would anyone be familiar with the nickname "Radio" referring to a
>speedy person?  The newspaper _San Francisco Bulletin_ in one article
>refers to S.F. Seals' speedy outfielder Jimmy Johnston by this
>nickname, but no explanation is given.
>
>     Could it be that Johnston's speed was likened to that of radio
>signals and for 1913 readers no explanation of this was necessary?
>
>      The article with "Radio" appears on May 15, 1913, p.14, col. 1;
>title: 'If Seals dispose of Oaks...'; here is the relevant quote:
>
>'"Radio Jimmy" Johnston was one of the main features of yesterday's
>game. It is certain that the Recreation Park multitude never looked a
>faster Coaster over. ... "Radio" can see an opening where no one else
>can and is equally capable in taking advantage of it.  He has the
>speed of an express train... When Jimmy crossed the rubber, Gus
>grinned appreciatively... Later in the game "Radio" stole second
>again,....'
>
>  ---Gerald Cohen