Nickname Watch: The Baby-Faced Assassin

May 23, 2013

Atlanta closer Craig Kimbrel, naturally blessed with both boyishly rosy cheeks and lethal competitive instincts, has been called (and more than once) the Baby-faced Assassin. With this epithet coming into wide usage, it is perhaps only a matter of time before an attempt is made — either by Mr. Kimbrel himself, or by arbiters of culture like Baseball-Reference.com — to give it some sort of official sanction. We here at Nickname Watch take a conservative stance on such matters, and have consistently advised that a very high burden of proof be set for those wishing to claim a nickname. In the case at hand, we consider the burden of proof to be especially high, since this nickname has in fact already been used in Major League Baseball: (nick)namely, by longtime Reds reliever Danny Graves. Though it is easily argued that Mr. Kimbrel is a superior player to Mr. Graves — and after all, to employ a reductio ad absurdum, we would certainly not strip the name “Splendid Splinter” from Ted Williams due to the revelation of prior use by some minor player — the seniority of the latter man, I’m sure we can agree, should have some value.

But the trouble does not stop there, because even Mr. Graves is but one of a long list of individuals laying claim to the name “Baby-faced Assassin.” Were the decision solely ours, we would disqualify the phrase from Mr. Kimbrel’s official usage on this basis alone. But it is not ours, and therefore, we must at least entertain the suggestion that Mr. Kimbrel has somehow staked a worthier claim to it than any of his predecessors. Because this particular nickname depends in large part on aesthetic considerations, we suggest, as a preliminary step of information-gathering, that images of prior claimants be displayed and public opinion solicited as to the strength of each claim. For reference, we have arranged claimants in reverse chronological order, according to the period during which each was “active.”

Stephen “The Baby-faced Assassin” Curry, American professional basketball player (2009- )

Brian “The Baby-faced Assassin” Lee, American professional ice hockey player (2007- )

James “The Baby-faced Assassin” Purnell, British Labour Party politician (2001- )

Taufik “The Baby-faced Assassin” Hidayat, Indonesian badminton player (1998- )

Josh “The Baby-faced Assassin” Barnett, American mixed martial artist and professional wrestler (1997- )

Danny “The Baby-faced Assassin” Graves, Vietnamese-American relief pitcher (1996-2006)

Fergal “The Baby-faced Assassin” O’Brien, Irish professional snooker player (1991- )

Ole Gunnar “The Baby-faced Assassin” Solskjaer, Norwegian footballer (1990-2007)

Marco Antonio “The Baby-faced Assassin” Barrera, Mexican professional boxer (1989- )

Glenn “The Baby-faced Assassin” Seton, Australian racing driver (1984- )

Isiah “The Baby-faced Assassin” Thomas, American basketball player (1981-1994)

Paolo “The Baby-faced Assassin” Rossi, Italian football striker (1973-1987)

John F. “The Baby-faced Assassin” Collins, mayor of Boston (1960-1968)

Chub “The Baby-faced Assassin” Peabody, defensive lineman for the Harvard football team, and governor of Massachusetts (c. 1941)

Bill “The Baby-faced Assassin” Corbus, American football guard who played for Stanford University (1931-1933)

Jimmy “The Baby-faced Assassin” McLarnin, Canadian professional boxer (1923-1936)

Historical note. Though Mr. McLarnin was reputedly the first to be known as “Baby-faced Assassin,” we have been unable to find contemporaneous documentation of the nickname. Certainly he was often referred to as “baby-faced” in the newspapers, beginning in the late twenties. The addition of “assassin” may have been encouraged by the exploits of gangster and murderer “Baby Face” Nelson (see below), who had earned public notoriety by 1931. In that same year, the actor Lew Ayres (see below), who was also routinely described as “baby-faced,” was reported to be making a movie called “The Baby-Faced Killer.” The film was either released under a different title, or was not released at all. To the best of our knowledge, the first undisputed print appearance of the full phrase “baby-faced assassin” occurred on November 29, 1941, in the Daily Boston Globe, when it was used in reference to Chub Peabody.