Query: "Radio" as a 1913 nickname

[Frank Abate]

Gerald Cohen said:

>>
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')."
<<

On a related note, there is a story about former major league umpire Ron
Luciano, who was behind the plate for a game back in the 70s that fastballer
Nolan Ryan was pitching.  Ryan was known to throw over 100 mph at times, and
on this day he was.  After Luciano called a strike on one good Ryan
fastball, the batter complained, "How can you call that a strike?  I
couldn't even see it."  Luciano replied, "I couldn't either, but it sounded
like a strike."

In passing, let me add that Ryan's fastball was dubbed "the Ryan Express",
which I think was a takeoff on the movie title "Von Ryan's Express".


Frank Abate
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