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Tonight (July 30), the St. Louis Cardinals in-stadium promotion for their game with Minnesota is Adult Mystery Alumni Nickname Jersey, where the first 30,000 fans 16 and older receive a jersey featuring the nickname of a former player.

In this edition of Reading Baseball, Pete Peterson looks back the often colorful history of baseball nicknames, especially for the Cardinals’ famous Gas House Gang.

Reading Baseball is a series of essays and commentaries by Richard “Pete” Peterson, the author of Growing Up With Clemente and editor of The St. Louis Baseball Reader.