How do you pronounce "Lajoie"?

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Posted By: BigSpiderBeck

I have always heard "Lajoie" pronounced by others as "la-JOY", stress on second syllable, not that it comes up much with the savages I hang out with. Recently, on a re-run of the Ken Burns Baseball series, I heard the narrator, in stately and learned narrator tones, refer to Ol' 106 as "LAH-j'way", strong stress on first syllable, and I gather the correct French pronunciation of this surname. How do you think Lajoie himself pronounced it? How do you folks pronounce it? I shall defer to your expertise.

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Posted By: runscott

You will get to hear a bunch of guys who played ball with and against Lajoie say his name.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

Harry Grayson's seminal 1944 work "They Played The Game": "Lazhoway".

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Posted By: marty

I listened to the Ty Cobb audio book, and the reader was saying La Schaw. I have heard everywhere else Lashuway

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Posted By: Julie

If you don't believe him, ask Ben--he speaks French, like a bunch of Canadians. Actually, Lajoie could have changed the pronunciation of his name here--but he didn't.

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Posted By: Tim Newcomb

From a beautiful little 1912 book of baseball verse I picked up on ebay recently, here's a stanza pertinent to this discussion:

And once, as all boys knew by heart,
Napoleon's name was Bonaparte,
But every urchin knows today,
His name's Lajoie (or Lajoway).


-- Edmund Vance Cooke, BASEBALLOGY (1912)

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Posted By: runscott

Very nicely done!

Another great vintage name for discussion is "Cicotte" - I heard that one pronounced a couple of different ways on the "Glory of Their Times" cds -

Cy-kot'-ty and Cy'-kot

...but not See'-coat (that would be as bad as Luh-Joy')

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

theres a race car driver named Randy Lajoie and his last name is pronounced the dreaded luh-joy....he is from georgia tho so that might explain that pronunciation

While i was at the hall of fame about 10 years ago i heard what i assumed to be the correct way to say it during a movie that they had shown,and it was said "lashuway"

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Posted By: runscott

Georgians seem to pronounce everything incorrectly. We have a street in Atlanta called "Ponce de Leon" - don't even think about how we pronounce it! (hint: Mr. Luckey would turn his head if he heard it)

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Posted By: Rob M (ramram)

I find this topic interesting because we all have often read about many of these names over the years and had in our minds all this time our own interpretation of the pronunciations. It's often quite a shock to hear that we weren't even close. I was one that for years thought it was La Joy only to find out a couple of years ago it was La Zha way. We've come so far in translating so much of our WRITTEN history back thousands of years and yet we often don't even know the VERBAL pronunciation of words a little over a hundred years ago. For instance, do we truly even know if the early Greeks pronounced a name like "Plato" as we do today or did they pronounce it "Gork"? How would we ever REALLY know?

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Posted By: runscott

unless you have a recording available.

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Posted By: Durward

Thanks again to all for sharing their opinions. All these threads are educational and much appreciated. I’m very good at butchering the pronunciation of player’s names that I have never heard spoken. In addition to Lajoie, I always assume Jack Chesbro was pronounced "Chess-bro". Thanks to reading one of the Honus biographies, I’ve learned the correct pronunciation to be "Cheese-bro".
Durward

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Posted By: sean holly

I actually worked with Nap's great nephew...looks JUST LIKE HIM as well....he pronounces it LA-Joy as well, but is from the Boston area

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Posted By: Julie

.....

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Posted By: runscott

I'm certain you never heard Cicotte pronounce his own name, despite what John says.

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Posted By: Scott

Cicotte's name. The announcer at the ballpark (who back then just yelled into a megaphone, so hardly no one could hear him anyway), he said "See-Cotty." The bugs in the stands, they either had it "See-Cotty," or "Sy-Cott," which is also how us ballplayers said it. I cannot say why no one ever asked Eddie himself
how to do it, but I guess no one did. Indeed, I myself did not find out the right way, which was "See-Cott," 'til years later when I was sitting on trial next to the fellow. But I suppose it didn't matter. Most of us boys just called him Knuckles in the first place."

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Posted By: runscott (pronounced "run-seecottie"

We can't even trust the guys who played with him, even if we have their recorded voices to go by! But I suppose this guy is right - it really doesn't matter. Cicotte played, he's dead, he didn't care then and probably cares much less now.

But it's really eerie thinking John might be right about Julie. DID you ever pull a Radbourne?

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

Its good to know people actually read and remember my posts.Thanks Scott

A name that ive been saying wrong the whole time,tho it is his nickname,is Pud Galvin....the name is derived from pudding,not his love of his "bat". I never really thought about it till i actually read the reason of the nickname a month or so ago

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Posted By: Rob M (ramram)

So are you saying Galvin's first name rhymes with "good" not "bud"??

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

Exactly,altho i should note for people who dont know,its not his real first name.For some reason his parents didnt know he liked pudding when he was born so that went with the more common name,James

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Posted By: runscott

He WAS born on Christmas Day (no lie), so maybe his childhood nickname was "Christmas Pud".

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Posted By: Julie

I don't think nasty people should be encouraged. I never bought a pack of cards in my life--when I took my son in 1979 to the local baseball card store, he'd head right for the "cheap box," until I noticed a '75 mini Brock, and asked him why he didn't buy that one.
"MOM--it costs a whole dollar!" he answered. "That's O.K. Chris, I'll pay for it." The beginning of the end.

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

Hey Julie,thanks for calling me "narsty" ....We all know about your amazing accomplishments of buying packs of cards in 13 different decades,an amazing streak! Contrary to popular belief tho,Julie was never the original owner of a peck & snyder card....shes not that old!

I one day hope to equal your streak Julie,im at 3 and counting! wish me luck

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Posted By: Kenny Cole

Come on. I am admittedly not the posterchild for peace in our time. I am probably more willing to engage in debate over stupid stuff than I should be.

However, Julie doesn't shoot at others too often. Yes, she tells us what she got. Sometimes I imagine that can be construed as bragging. Yes, I wish that I had received an inheritance that would allow me to buy the cards I wanted. She did, we didn't. Such is life.

She brags when she gets a great card. Fair enough. The fact of the matter is that we ALL do that when we get a great card. If we don't do it initially, we tell enough people that it gets mentioned and you get to the same place. You are asked and modestely respond.

Yes,Julie is sometimes somewhat Casey Stengalese in terms of what she says. I don't know Julie at all, and would have to say that she can be a little cranky at times, but I really can't think of a reason why she should get worse treatment than anyone else who brags about how rich they are or how wonderful their collection is. Just my opinion.

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Posted By: Kenny Cole

At the risk of sounding like Hankron and doing the multiple post thing, I would also have to say that I can't really understand why someone would decide to personally attack her. She just isn't that controversial, at least in my opinion. Personally, I'd much rather fight with MW and RunScott (there would be a smile there if I was computer literate).

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Posted By: runscott

so I've never understood it. John treats her like she sniped him on an obscure OJ Corcoran variation. We all know Julie wouldn't hurt a fly, and when she comes across as CaseyStengelish it is usually by accident. John already told me that most of his furniture is made out of 1980's baseball cards (stacks of commons).

But never mind John and Julie, check this out Maynard (yes, bad pun). I've been looking for a 1905-1910-ish full-web glove for ages, but never figured I'd find one with so much cool game experience!(no inheritance...sheesh...talk about rationalizing).

It's not the SportsCards Plus Matty glove, but looks just like it!

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Posted By: Kenny Cole

When I was a kid, my dad gave me his gloves to play with. One was probably from around 1910, because he got it from his dad, one was from the mid '30s, when my dad was a kid. Being born in 1961, I was obviously WAAAAAY TOO COOL to take those things to school when we were playing workup. Don't know where they went. For a myriad of reasons, I sure do wish that I did.

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Posted By: Julie

for a female? Just wondering. Bulletin: I am no longer rich, having spend all my money or my kids, a car for my husband, a year's worth of mortgages, and baseball cards. And redoing two rooms of the house. So I am poor but honest again.
And I gotta go eat my Nazi diet, or I will start eating horrible things and gain back all the weight I lost ("Scarecrow"? In your dreams...)

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

yeah you got me Julie.its just that.
The attacks are not really attacks and are meant to be funny and when Julie gets mad over stuff like that well it is funny.

It goes back to her bad spelling and having to comment in every thread with stuff like "i agree" or "nice card"
I politely asked her to cut back on the comments like that,and it was very polite,and she retorted with "if you dont want to read what i say dont read it"
When i told her that everytime she comments like that it shows up as a thread with a new message and i dont know what the comment is till i actually open the thread and see that she wrote.It was explained in great detail because it took me about 3 emails before i gave up asking her,she couldnt comprehend it and kept doing the same thing.
So everytime she said something so bad i usually comment and contrary to popular belief and without naming names, its very amusing to alot of people on the board.
Now everyone knows why i sometimes make fun of Julie.Theres no hate involved except i hated when she used to do that,now it doesnt bother me because i just shake my head in disbelief sometimes and it became comical "there goes crazy old Julie again"

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Posted By: runscott

Be sure to bring your 1908 Spalding Guide to class, along with a pair of scissors.

http://www.ebay.com/university/

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

.....scarecrow reference had nothing to do with weight Julie,and it was more of a wizard of oz song reference but you were probably too old to watch that movie when it came out(that was a joke!)

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Posted By: Kenny Cole

John,

Don't know you either. But it seems to me that it ain't hardly fair to bitch about Julie's mis-spellings when your grasp of the English language appears to be terrible. If you are going to chide people about their poor grammar, I personally think it is only right that you write correctly. You aren't even close to doing that. Just my opinion. As my old coach would say, A for effort, F for a grade.

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Posted By: Rob M (ramram)

I guess John and Julie don't agree on how to pronounce Lajoie??

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

Hey Kenny,that low flying plane wasnt a plane at all,it was my explanation going over your head.Nice try tho,might want to go back and re-read what i wrote.

p.s. I used to write for the Pittsburgh Pirates website and i did my own proofreading,never got a complaint,and i dont need a grammar lesson from you or anyone else(maybe mw) on this board.Thanks anyway

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Posted By: Kenny Cole

If you wrote like this for Pittsburg, I understand why is is a "used to" situation. Perhaps that is because you did your own proofreading.

I frankly don't care how poorly you write until you start in on someone else for writing poorly. Then you make your grammar relevant. Something about people who live in glass houses . . .

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

I didnt know that Kiki Cuyler is actually pronounced like he was stuttering(kids can be so cruel) meaning:

ki rhymes with cuy

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

good for you Kenny! you think what you want stud.

Guess i cant pick on Julie the next time she says something so off the wall it makes your head hurt because she has a Kenny

You know,i use the last name cole as an alias when i dont want people to know who i am(except i spell it coal but its pronounced the same),hmmmmm

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Posted By: Kenny Cole

I can understand how you might not want to use your own name when you say some of the stupider things that you say. I wouldn't want to use my own name either. If you want to falsely use my name, I suppose that's OK. That's not a big issue for me. After all, you've just admitted that its you, not me, saying the dumb stuff.

I don't always fully understand Julie's posts either. But I don't have to. She is as absolutely entitled to post here as you or I am. Go on ahead and fake my name when you want to say stupid stuff if you think that's the thing to do. To my way of thinking, doing that it simply shows that you lack the courage of your convictions.

If you can't sign your own name to something you say, its hard for me to respect anything you say. Its just my opinion, but, in my viewpoint, it just means that you have even less class than I thought you did. That's not a problem because we're not friends and I never thought you had any class to begin with.

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

end of conversation.Back to vintage card talk

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Posted By: Kenny Cole

You are plenty dumb and do an excellent job of demonstrating it. You are right though. You should go back to discussing vintage cards. You might have a chance there. Debate just isn't your forte.

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Posted By: John(z28jd)

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Posted By: leon

That little squirmish was slightly amusing....nice one guys.....for what it's worth I think Julie is interesting, John is funny as crap (supposing crap is funny), and Kenny is ok too.....If I had a peace pipe I would be smoking it ( no comments please)....and I must say I am very glad to see Hankron back with us...really, ya'll have to admit Elliot ( hi Elliot ) has done an excellent job on keeping this forum 99% cool......later

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Posted By: Hankron

I like Leon's posts because he punctuates like Louis-Ferdinand Celine (Celine used a lot of '...'s).

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Posted By: Hankron

Everyone knows that if Leon on was in charge, he'd make us shake hands before and after each thread.

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Posted By: runscott

...let's use both margins

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Posted By: Jeff S

If one feels that their grammar/punctuation/spelling opens themselves up to criticism and they do not want to take the risk, one should consider consulting a professional:

http://www.MisterWrite.com

In this highly competitive 21st century marketplace, effective communication is crucial, and a single typo can incur the wrath of snippy board members.

It is in this spirit that I offer all board members a 10% discount on MisterWrite.com services. Please remember to use coupon code "DREKER".

Jeff

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Posted By: Hankron

To note, I wasn't in any way criticisng Leon (I think he knows that). I find no fault with his use of punctuation and was not implying any.

Second, I'm aware that I'm a poor speller. I subscribe to the "You know what I mean" and "2 'r's, 1 'r,' who gives a flying f*ck?" school of writing ... In other words, I wouldn't seriously criticize other board members' spelling.

What I was trying to do was to burrow into the next board, as I hear they serve cookies and light refreshments over there. If commenting on Leon's punctuation is what it takes to get some refreshments, so be it.