The internet hive-mind strikes again: apparently The Machine is not quite a phantom nickname so much as an abandoned one. Commenter Dave Newman suggests that, according to This Week in Baseball, the rest of the Cardinals began calling him by that name at some point; zip goes even further, mentioning that a The Machine poster also exists. (It’s not on eBay now, but according to a Google hit it was at some point in the recent past.) Now, the classic phantom B-R nickname still persists, as far as I can tell; when I am the tenth Google hit there is simply not a major grassroots nicknaming effort underway.

Speaking of comments, I’ve been meaning to post about this one, which appeared on the ghost town that is the Get Up, Baby! Contact page:

Hi Dan,
I love your Silver Worrell photo. Silver King was my great great grandfather and I stumbled across this site looking for some new info about him. Good stuff. I’m in Sacramento, CA and perhaps the biggest (or maybe only) Cardinal fan on the west coast. Go Cards!

I love the internet. Aside from the time that Daric Barton’s grandmother e-mailed me to thank me for posting photos from his time in Peoria this is easily my favorite comment ever. (If we have any Bob Caruthers descendants in the audience feel free to make yourselves known.)