Bobson Dugnutt: The man, the meme, the legend

Last Updated on January 5, 2024 by Dave Farquhar

Bobson Dugnutt was a fictional baseball player in the 1994 console game Fighting Baseball, the Japanese version of MLBPA baseball published by EA. He was a bench player for the Milwaukee franchise, a backup outfielder and pinch hitter.

Lack of a license to use the real names of baseball players led to a Japanese baseball game where they made up American names, with uneven results. Bobson Dugnutt was the most absurd name in the meme inspired by the game Fighting Baseball.

The Bobson Dugnutt meme

Unintentionally humorous Japanese attempts at English in retro games are no stranger to memes. “All your base are belong to us” from the 1992 game Zero Wing was a popular early meme of the late 1990s. Bobson Dugnutt took longer to surface, finally breaking through on the meme scene around 2007. Its biggest viral days are probably behind it, but it still makes the rounds a couple of times a year.

You can find Bobson Dugnutt graphics floating around, and you can get a Bobson Dugnutt t-shirt too.

The game is real, and I tried out the Super Famicom version to peruse the names, take screenshots, and experience the gameplay for myself. It uses basically the same controls as any other 90s console baseball game. The Super Famicom version works perfectly in modern SNES emulators.

Sports games tend to have a short shelf life. Players change teams every year, and the best teams usually vary from year to year, so any sports game tends to feel dated after a year. For a sports video game to have staying power, it has to have something distinctive. And whoever loaded this one up in 2007 found something plenty distinctive. Attaining legendary status after 13 years of languishing in obscurity just makes the story that much better.

The origin of the Bobson Dugnutt name

The game consisted of 28 teams with rosters of 26 players each. Lacking a license to use real names like RBI Baseball, and presuming not enough ’90s American baseball players had name recognition in Japan to justify the expense, they made up American names. 728 of them.

To get the made-up American names for Fighting Baseball, they started out with a list of real MLB baseball players, but for whatever reason the designer also borrowed heavily from the NHL. I guess in a game called Fighting Baseball, having some hockey players on hand is a good idea.

But from a practical standpoint, I think they did it to reduce the number of Hispanic names they had to deal with. The method they came up with worked best with people with Anglican first names. Maybe “best” isn’t the best word, but work with me here.

How the designers of a Japanese baseball game made up 728 American sounding names

The job of making up 728 American sounding names for baseball players would have been a lot easier if the Japanese designers could have gotten their hands on a US phone book. To make an alias for John Kruk, just flip to K, look for a name that sounds reasonable that may or may not have a first name starting with J, then move on to the next player.

But doing that would have deprived us of the unintentional awesomeness of Bobson Dugnutt and the co-inhabitants of his baseball universe. Bobson Dugnutt is the spawn of the formula they came up with whose results ran the full spectrum from believable to hilarious, and left no gaps in between.

Bobson Dugnutt’s name came from Ron Tugnutt, a goalie for the NHL’s Boston Bruins. To make most of the fictional player names, the designer changed a real MLB or NHL player’s first name completely, then changed one or two letters of the last name. John Kruk became Mike Truk. “Truk” isn’t a name but every six-year-old boy sure wishes it was. Dugnutt came from changing the first letter of Tugnutt. It looks suspiciously like the English word Doughnut. It also sounds like it could be something we make ointment for. As for Bobson? It seems to be a Japanese brand name and I guess it does sound like it could be a sophisticated take on the name Bob. But of course, we only use the -son suffix for last names, a la Robertson.

And that shows what a near-miss Bobson Dugnutt was. Doughnut Robertson sounds like a good name for a backup corner outfielder to me.

Other Japanese made-up American baseball names

Although our man Bobson gets the glory, or at least the t-shirts, most teams had at least one name that was similarly corrupt name, hilarious, or both. Atlanta had a third baseman named Sleve McDichael. Your mind went where it went. I take no responsibility. It went where it went. Montreal had Ronnis Pawgood. You know he lives in Georgia and breeds dogs in the off-season. It’s destiny. Toronto had Jonasan Fidd and Secil Tisio. One of the Chicago teams had a pitcher named Wally Balk. Don’t let him pitch late innings with runners on base. And check out the name of Bobson’s teammate. Batting eighth and playing first base, Randy Chaw!

That has to be the most unintentionally great baseball name ever. Or, for all we know, they may have known it was great.

I say that because some of the names they came up with sound believable enough. Kelly Jack. Grant Falk. Cliff Revis. “Kelly” is more commonly a woman’s name, but I can think of three former major league baseball players with that first name: Kelly Gruber, Kelly Shoppach, and Kelly Stinnett. As for Grant Falk and Cliff Revis, they’re perfectly ordinary names without falling back on a cliche last name like Smith or Jones. They could be next door neighbors on any street in the United States or Canada.

You won’t find any of these names among the list of 90s baseball legends. But if you’re in the mood for some 16-bit baseball, and want a little extra entertainment value in the form of unintentional hilarity, grab the Fighting Baseball ROM and fire it up in an emulator. Finding a real copy on Ebay won’t be easy but you can at least say you tried. Maybe someone can buy the rights and do a reissue someday.