in common (answered)

[utterchaos]

What do the following players have in common?

Cap Peterson
Tod Davis
Ted Davidson
Sam Mele

[Andy1234]

They all go by unusual shortened versions of there real name (which happen to be 3 letters)

Sabath to Sam
Thomas to Tod
Thomas to Ted
Charles to Cap

And they all have Middle names that start with a Vowel

Sabath Anthony Mele
Thomas Oscar Davis
Thomas Eugene Davidson
Charles Andrew Peterson

I just figured it out

First, Middle, and Last Initals spell out Nickname (I guess they aren't that unusual after all, because they aren't shortened versions)<br><br><span class=gensmall>Accepted as answer by utterchaos on Thu Jul 01, 2004 7:36 am EST.</span>

[utterchaos]

That's it. The first names that they went by were actually an acronym of their initials.

Sabath Anthony Mele = SAM Mele
Thomas Oscar Davis = TOD Davis
Thomas Eugene Davidson = TED Davidson
Charles Andrew Peterson = CAP Peterson