Jell-O Galvin?
If Pud Galvin pitched today, rather than in the late 1800s, would he be known as Jell-O Galvin?
James Francis Galvin earned the nickname “Pud” due to the amazing movement he put on the baseball, causing opposing hitter’s legs to look like pudding in the batter’s box. A pitcher with similar movement today is said to make the hitter’s legs look like Jell-O.
Even though there are many pitchers in today’s game with great pitch movement, no pitcher has earned the nickname of “Jell-O”. Arguably, you could have “Jell-O” (Pedro) Martinez, “Jell-O” (Kerry) Wood, “Jell-O” (Justin) Verlander, or “Jell-O” (Johan) Santana. Some of those even sound like good nicknames, but for some reason, none of those players have been referred to as “Jell-O” or anything similar. The terms “Gelatin” or “Jelly” could even be used in place of “Jell-O” to avoid possible copyright issues.
If Pud Galvin played today, he would be the Jell-O spokesman, not Bill Cosby. Ironically, Jell-O also makes a delicious pudding, which Pud (or “Jell-O”) Galvin could advertise.
So every time you eat Jell-O or pudding, take a minute to study how it moves, and remind yourself that although it wiggles and jiggles due to water and other ingredients, Pud Galvin used to make people move like that with a baseball.