So long, Spuds! The Cincinnati Reds have a long and rich history. The oldest Major League Baseball organization has seen some of the game’s greatest players wear the wishbone ‘C’ on their caps. Many Hall of Famers have played for the Reds, including Frank Robinson, Johnny Bench, and Barry Larkin.
However, some of those all-time greats also had all-time great nicknames. Charlie Hustle (Pete Rose), The Old Left-Hander (Joe Nuxhall), and The Big Donkey (Adam Dunn), to mention a few. One of the more amusing nicknames was given to former Reds third baseman Chris Sabo. They called him Spuds.
Reds History: Chris Sabo was a fan favorite in Cincinnati.
Sabo’s moniker was given to him by his management at the time. Rose, who led the Reds from 1984 to 1989, supposedly gave Sabo his famous nickname because of his likeness to the fake commercial figure ‘Spuds MacKenzie’.
Many young Reds fans in the late 1980s and early 1990s grabbed their hat, glove, and a pair of swimming goggles and walked out to play minor league baseball, hoping to mimic Sabo, whose unique eyewear became synonymous with the 1988 National League Rookie of the Year. Sabo made his debut that season, replacing five-time All-Star Buddy Bell at third base.
Sabo played six seasons with Cincinnati, hitting.270/.327/.449 with 101 home runs and 357 RBIs. In addition to his Rookie of the Year award, Sabo appeared in three All-Star Games during his debut season with the Reds and was a crucial player of the 1990 World Series winning team.
Chris Sabo signed with the Orioles after a six-year stint with Cincinnati.
But Sabo left Cincinnati as a free agency after the 1993 season. On January 14, 1994, the infielder signed a one-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles worth $2 million. The New York Mets were also interested in Sabo that offseason. However, injury limited the slick-fielding third baseman to only 68 games that season.
Sabo struggled in his first 20 games of the 1994 season, hitting just.221/.308/.397. The Orioles’ third baseman was in and out of the lineup early in the season, but he returned on June 10th and hit.264/.323/.483 over his final 44 games. However, Sabo had a limited part in Baltimore due to Leo Gómez’s good hitting.
Sabo then spent 1995 with the Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals before returning to the Reds in 1996. That was Sabo’s final big league season, and he concluded his Reds career with 818 games played, 812 hits, 193 doubles, and a career OPS+ of 111. Sabo was elected into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2010. Following his playing career, he dabbled in coaching at the collegiate and professional levels.
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