Fans who follow baseball know about the great nicknames of the modern era: David "Big Papi" Ortiz, Cal "Ironman" Ripken, Frank "Big Hurt" Thomas, Randy "The Big Unit" Johnson. However some of the more unique nicknames came even before anybody had heard of Babe Ruth.

Since the National League has been around since 1876 I decided to consider all players who played in the National League prior to the formation of the American League in 1901.

Below is a listing of what I deem the best pseudo-names from 1876-1900. These nicknames were actually what the players were called by in everyday life. You can look up any of their stats on baseball-reference.com. Leave a comment below with your favorite five from this list!

• Boileryard Clarke
  
• Bones Ely
  
• Brickyard Kennedy
  
• Buttercup Dickerson
  
• Butts Wagner - brother of Honus Wagner
  
• Candy Cummings - the man who invented the curveball (pictured)
  
• Cannonball Titcomb
  
• Doggie Miller
  
• Dummy Hoy (the great deaf Major League baseball player)
  
• Foghorn Bradley
  
• Hick Carpenter
  
• Highball Wilson (not a good name for a pitcher)
  
• Juice Latham
  
• Kick Kelly
  
• Klondike Douglass
  
• Lady Baldwin
  
• Live Oak Taylor
  
• Nig Cuppy
  
• Noodles Hahn
  
• Oyster Burns
  
• Peek-A-Boo Veach
  
• Phenomenal Smith
  
• Scoops Carey
  
• Scrappy Carroll
  
• Socks Seybold
  
• Tacks Latimer
  
• The Only Nolan
  

Also considered: Bumpus Jones, Buttons Briggs, Chief Sockalexis (the man whom the Cleveland Indians are named after), Chub Collins, Chub Sullivan, Chummy Gray, Cooney Snyder, Count Campau, Cowboy Jones, Cozy Dolan, Crazy Schmit, Cupid Childs, Curry Foley, Cyclone Miller, Cyclone Ryan, Dasher Troy, Ducky Hemp, Ducky Holmes, Dude Esterbrook, Dummy Stephenson, Dummy Taylor, Farmer Steelman, Farmer Vaughn, Farmer Weaver, Fatty Briody, Ginger Beaumont, Hi Ebright, Hi Ladd, Honus Wagner (brother of the aforementioned Butts Wagner), Hunkey Hines, Jiggs Donahue, Jiggs Parrott, Lip Pike, Orator Shaffer, Pink Hawley, Pussy Tebeau, Rube Waddell, Silver Flint, Silver King, Sleeper Sullivan, Sparrow Morton, Spider Clark, Sport McAllister, Spud Johnson, Stub Brown, Stub Smith, Stump Wiedman, Sun Daly, Thorny Hawkes, Trick McSorley, Tricky Nichols, Tub Welch, Tug Arundel, Wash Williams, Win Clark, Win Mercer, Zaza Harvey.