Watch the video to learn more about Walt Weiss and baseball’s best nickname. You can also read more about the Oakland A’s shortstop here or check out The Touchback on Youtube for more videos.
Walt “Three Blind” Weiss had baseball’s best nickname. Now, it was never really widely used and few people outside of Oakland will be familiar with it. In many ways, it’s sort of an embodiment of Walt Weiss the baseball player. If you didn’t know he existed, you probably wouldn’t care, but he gave hope and joy to those aware of him.
If you look at Weiss’ stats, you’d think he sucked. He never hit more than eight home runs or 48 RBIs in a season and was a career .258 hitter. This wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t come during the height of the steroid era. Oh, and Weiss spent three seasons playing for the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in the mid-1990s where broken bat bloopers had a chance of leaving the park.
You might think he was a defensive wiz like Omar Vizquel since he couldn’t do diddly with a bat. That would be incorrect. He never won a Gold Glove and was by all metrics an average MLB fielder. And yet, much like the Walt “Three Blind” Weiss nickname, he grew on you. If you were a Little Leaguer and saw him play, it inspired hope. Anyone had a chance to be a pro if this dude could make it.
Related: Crazy facts about home run hitters in 1996
