How did "Catfish" Hunter get his nickname? The story that went around was that while the A's were waiting at Jimmy Hunter's farmhouse to sign him to his first professional baseball contract, he was fishing down in the creek. After waiting for several hours the A's representive saw Jimmy walking home with a large string of catfish.
It sounds nice, but it isn't true at all. The real story is that the owner of the A's Charlie Finley, made up the whole story because he wanted his players to have nicknames that people could relate to. Jimmy went along with the bogus nickname because he felt it gave him a special advantage over his rivals. If a fan called Jimmy "Catfish" he knew that he didn't know that person. His real friends/fans never called him "Catfish" because they knew the real story behind that name!
