Looking back on 'Moniker' champions

MiLB.com's annual Minors Moniker Madness tournament is now in full swing, and between now and Aug. 25, a crowded field of 64 candidates will be whittled down until just one individual remains.

That individual's name will then reside in the virtual rafters alongside the contest's previous winners: Houston Summers, Will Startup, Dusty Napoleon and Rowdy Hardy.

Questions abound regarding this year's tournament. Will Seth Schwindenhammer avenge last year's loss in the Finals? Will young Dusty Harvard establish himself as one to watch? Is fifth-year participant Callix Crabbe finally poised for a breakthrough?

Before getting immersed in such minutiae, we here at MiLB.com thought now would be a good time to look back at years past. What follows is the most definitive account of Minors Moniker Madness history ever published. Surely, future historians will consider it a landmark distillation of disparate source material.

2007: It all started in March of 2007. The first Minors Moniker Madness competition was launched in conjunction with (and borrowing a format from) the NCAA's annual "March Madness" tournament. The inaugural field of 64 was chosen by a small team of MiLB.com staffers, who doggedly combed through massive Excel spreadsheets in search of the greatest baseball names they could find. These names were randomly divided into four brackets, each named after a great name in Minor League history. These brackets remain the same today: Icicle Reeder, Farmer Works, Natty Nattress and Razor Shines.

Conventional wisdom when the contest began was that no one would be able to defeat Dominican Summer League sensation Jorge Poo Tang, but a concerted voting campaign launched in Will Startup's Georgia hometown resulted in an Elite Eight upset over Mr. Tang. Startup advanced to the finals, where he was defeated by 19-year-old catcher Houston Summers. The victory was a source of pride for the residents of Guilford County, N.C.

"Our local newspaper ran a story about the contest, and I heard that the fire department put up a sign telling people to vote for me," said Summers, during a congratulatory phone call. "All the males in my family have names that begin with the letter 'H,' and I guess they just started running out of names."

Where is he now? During the ensuing 2007 campaign, Summers made the switch from catcher to knuckleball pitcher. He spent the majority of four seasons practicing this most elusive of baseball arts, pitching predominantly within the Class A Short-Season ranks. In 2010 he appeared in 18 games with the Batavia Muckdogs, going 2-1 with a 4.96 ERA over 18 relief appearances. After the season, he was released by the Cardinals organization and has not yet re-emerged within the professional ranks. Summers is still just 23 -- hopefully he's not done yet.

2008: This time around, Will Startup didn't back down and made it to the finish. The 23-year-old southpaw steamrolled past the likes of Jimmie James, Bubbie Buzachero, Winter Polo, Rocky Roquet, Rowdy Hardy and Dusty Napoleon en route to victory. When reached for comment on his victory, Startup revealed himself to be a veritable Minors Moniker Madness connoisseur.

"My favorite name in the contest was Benito Beato," he said. "And I also thought Cirilo Cumberbatch was great. I had the opportunity to play with Brooks Dunn in Spring Training, and Callix Crabbe is with the Padres [organization] as well.

"When I went up against Winter Polo [in the third round], I really thought that he would have a shot," he continued. "And [semifinal opponent] Rowdy Hardy was a good one, too, although I was upset to find out that Rowdy wasn't his given name."

Indeed, the issue of nicknames has been a controversial one within the Minors Moniker Madness realm. The policy was, and remains, this: if the nickname is what the player goes by in his day-to-day life, both within and without the world of baseball, then its fair game for the contest.

Where is he now? Startup spent the 2006 and 2007 campaigns in Triple-A, compiling solid numbers out of the bullpen and putting himself on the cusp of the Majors. But when he won MMM in 2008, he was on the disabled list with elbow inflammation, and this turned out to be a harbinger of bad times to come. Startup ended up undergoing Tommy John surgery, missing all of 2008 and nearly all of 2009. He signed with the Orioles organization in February 2010 and is now working his way back up the ladder. The proud resident of Cartersville, Ga., who celebrated his 27th birthday yesterday, is currently with the Class A Advanced Frederick Keys.

2009: After getting defeated by Startup in the finals the year before, Dusty Napoleon entered the 2009 contest on a mission. Competing as a No. 5 seed, the Oakland A's backstop dispatched the egregiously overlooked Archimedes Euclides Caminero in the first round and never looked back. Not even perpetual contender Rowdy Hardy could contain him, as the crafty lefty once again was defeated in the semifinals. Napoleon then made short work of Beamer Weems in the final and that, as they say, was that.

An extensive post-contest analysis of the voting records revealed the following: 63 percent of the votes cast in the final round hailed from Napoleon's home state of Illinois. And 98 percent of these democratically-minded Illinoisans voted for Dusty. Or "Michael Dustin," if you want to get technical about it.

"[M]y Dad is a baseball coach, and he thought I'd play baseball, so he started calling me 'Dusty.' I guess he thought it had a nice ring to it," Napoleon said.

Napoleon also implored Moniker Madness organizers to consider including his then-Kane County teammate Petey Paramore in the contest, remarking that "Petey was upset that he wasn't in the contest. He thinks that he could have taken me down."

Alas, Paramore was inexplicably overlooked yet again this year. Our apologies, Petey.

Where is he now? Napoleon played the 2009 campaign in Kane County, hitting .218 over 79 ballgames. He then suffered through an injury-plagued 2010, appearing in just 22 games but somehow managing to do so over four levels of play. From there, the trail goes cold. Napoleon was released by the A's in March of 2011, and has yet to resurface. It goes without saying that his strong contingent of Illinois supporters hope to see him back within the professional ranks as soon as possible.

2010: After taking place in March the previous three seasons, the 2010 incarnation of Minors Moniker Madness was pushed back until July. This meant that Rowdy Hardy (born "Lenny Franklin Hardy") had to wait just a little bit longer to finally secure the championship that had so long eluded him. After getting bounced in the semifinals in 2007, 2008 and 2009, the slow-tossing lefty broke through in 2010. Hardy made mincemeat out of Mark Hamburger in his bugaboo round and then got by overachieving No. 15 seed Seth Schwindenhammer in the finals.

While Hardy's victory was well-earned, the soft-spoken Texan probably didn't get too rowdy when it came time to celebrate.

"I was a typical normal kid, never got into too much trouble," he told MiLB.com. "And now I'm getting a little older, so it's not like I'm out there acting wild all the time. But I'm sticking with Rowdy, absolutely. It would be weird if I switched it now."

So how did he get that nickname in the first place, then?

"You'll have to ask my dad," said Hardy. "I think [the television show] Rawhide had something to do with it. Clint Eastwood played a guy called 'Rowdy Yates.'"

Where is he now? After five seasons in the Kansas City organization, Hardy was picked up by the Atlanta Braves in the 2010 Triple-A Rule 5 Draft. He began the season with Double-A Mississippi but earned a promotion to the Triple-A Gwinnett Braves in May (marking the first time he had played at that level). Hardy is now back with Mississippi, but his time with the G-Braves was nonetheless successful. The 28-year-old did not yield an earned run over 7 2/3 innings pitched.