Even if you spelled it Phab Phour, it would be embarrassing. It's like throwing opposition homers back onto the field. That's a Wrigley Field thing, that's a Cubs thing, and the last time that franchise won anything Abraham Lincoln was president.
You detect a note of arrogance? Uh huh. I'm the guy who nicknamed that 1983 Phillies team "The Wheeze Kids" and it stuck. Yo, lightning might strike again 27 years later.
I want the best starting rotation in baseball called "The Un-four-gettables." Little musical reference in there, which should please Kristen Lee, who loved the city's cultural climate first time around. And the quaint chance to play Nat King Cole's version of "Unforgettable" whenever Cole Hamels pitches.
Other than Ruben Amaro Jr. and his front office elves, who thought Lee was "gettable" with the Yankees offering 7 years and $150 million?
That's it, that's my best shot. I had some other ideas, including "The Fourtissimos," which refers to the musical direction to play loudly. Maybe too obscure. And besides, these might be four of the most soft-spoken guys in the whole cockeyed game.
I had a patriotic theme, "Armed Fources" plus "Deadly Fource" and "Brute Fource" but baseball is not a violent game, unless you're sitting in the bleachers at Yankee Stadium wearing the other team's gear.
I thought about "The Enfourcers" but didn't want to focus on the mob angle. I thought about that Grant Wood painting and posing the four guys in overalls and farm implements and calling them "Pitch-Fourked." But that might have been too subtle.
That's the problem, worrying about how the nickname sounds as well as worrying about how it looks on a shirt.
