NYT: Vecsey:Deconstructing the Legend of Choo Choo

Choo Choo Coleman wants to set the record straight.  Correct — that Choo Choo Coleman.

Over the decades, legend has grown that Coleman did not know how he got his nickname…..Then there is the Ralph Kiner story about interviewing Coleman in 1962, and asking, “What’s your wife’s name, and what’s she like?” Coleman replied, “Her name is Mrs. Coleman — and she likes me, bub.”

On Sunday, Coleman shook his head politely and said it never happened that way. Kiner, on the phone from Florida, softly said it did.

Another part of the legend is that Kiner asked Coleman how he got his nickname and that Coleman said he did not know.

“When I was 8 or 9, I ran around a lot,” Coleman said Sunday. “My friends called me Choo Choo because I was fast.”

(“He could have told me that,” Kiner said, fondly.)

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m certainly not going to let facts screw up a perfectly good narrative