Puddin' Head

Where one of the greatest baseball nicknames really comes from

Puddin' Head

Every decade or so you see articles about how all the character is gone from baseball. People have a tendency to complain that today’s players have no personality and are mindless drones, and that the only interesting players were the ones from a generation ago.

As a result, journalists ignored Oscar Gamble’s amazing afro in the 1970s to complain that he wasn’t more like the stars of the 1950s. 1950s sluggers like Mickey Mantle looked poor to contemporary sportswriters in comparison with the Gashouse Gang of the 1930s. And Ol’ Diz and the boys looked downright childish to the journalists of their time when compared with the likes of Rube Waddell.

But sometimes the sheer force of character and personality wins out against all else.

I imagine that this was the case for Puddin’ Head Jones.

Anybody willing to own a nickname like “Puddin’ Head” must have been a fascinating person. And, of course, the real kicker here is that he was willing to sign his name using that nickname on his 1952 Bowman card. I don’t know if Jones realized that we’d still be looking at that signature almost 75 years later, but I’ve got a feeling that he’d get a kick out of it.

Ol’ Puddin’ Head was a well known member of the 1950 “Whiz Kid” Phillies, who overcame a late September slump to win the pennant over the Dodgers on the last day of the season. Jones didn’t hit for a high average that season, but did manage some power, which is perfectly fine for a third baseman.

He also set a record by recording 7 plate appearances in the 1950 All Star Game. That is still the record for a single All Star Game today, beating out two dozen players tied with 6:

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that nobody will ever beat Puddin’ Head’s record. If anything, we’re likely to see players receive fewer All Star Game plate appearances in the future, as the outcome of the game continues to shrink in importance to the idea of getting everybody into the ballgame.

But what about that nickname “Puddin’ Head?” Where did it come from?

Well, believe it or not, it probably wasn’t a pejorative. When Jones was about 8 or 9 years old, one of the popular tunes of the day was an early jazz pop song by Rudy Vallee called “Puddin’ Head Jones:”

The lyrics give you an idea of what the tone of the old song was:

Oh, Puddin' head Jones was fat and funny

Dumber than sticks and stones

Now that is just why the kids all called him

Woodenhead, Puddin' Head Jones

Now, as much as I like the song, it’s probably not the sort of thing that you’ll see featured on my Grateful Dead blog anytime soon. However, I do think the fact that Jones stuck with the goofy nickname that comes from this song says a lot about the sort of guy he was.