Charles Augustus "Kid" Nichols (September 14, 1869 – April 11, 1953) was an American

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(MLB)

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who played for the Boston Beaneaters,

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and Philadelphia Phillies from 1890 to 1906. A switch hitter who threw right-handed, he was listed at and . He is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Nichols played minor league baseball for three teams until 1889, when he signed with the Boston Beaneaters. After making his debut the following season and spending 12 seasons with the Beaneaters, Nichols spent a two-year sojourn in the minor leagues. He was dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1904 and subsequently played for the Philadelphia Phillies, with whom he finished his career in 1906. He is famous for being the youngest pitcher to join the 300 win club.

Early life

Nichols was born on September 14, 1869, in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

. His parents were Robert and Christina Nichols. His father had worked as a butcher and owned a grocery store with several locations in Madison. Robert had at least four children from a prior marriage to a woman named Sarah, who died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

in 1859. Robert and Christina had several children together. The family moved from Madison to Kansas City, Missouri when Nichols was a child. While his siblings worked in the family butcher shop, Nichols pursued baseball.

Baseball career

Before he turned 18 years old, Nichols had debuted in the minor leagues with the 1887

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of the Western League, earning an 18–12

win–loss record In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of matc ...

that season. He spent 1888 between the Kansas City Blues of the

Western Association The Western Association was the name of five different leagues formed in American minor league baseball during the 19th and 20th centuries. The oldest league, originally established as the Northwestern League in 1883, was refounded as the Weste ...

and Memphis of the Southern League, finishing the year with a combined 27–10 record. In 1889, he registered a 39–8 record for the Omaha Omahogs of the Western Association. Nichols signed with the Boston Beaneaters in September 1889 and entered the major leagues in with them in 1890. Due to Nichols's youthful appearance and relative lack of physical heft, Beaneaters' players and fans began calling him "Kid," a nickname which stuck for the rest of his career. Nichols recorded a 27–19 win–loss record, a 2.23

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) and 222 strikeouts, beginning a string of 10 consecutive seasons with 20 wins or more. Nichols also had a major league record seven 30-win seasons in this time (1891–1894, 1896–1898) with a career high of 35 in 1892. The Beaneaters won several pennant races during Nichols' tenure, finishing in first place five times between 1891 and 1898. The team had 102 wins per season in 1892 and 1898, which stood as franchise highs until 1998.

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calculates that Nichols led the team in

wins above replacement Wins Above Replacement or Wins Above Replacement Player, commonly abbreviated to WAR or WARP, is a non-standardized sabermetric baseball statistic developed to sum up "a player's total contributions to his team". A player's WAR value is claimed to ...

in 1890 and 1892 through 1898. Nichols had his first losing season in 1900, when he went 13–16. He improved to 19–16 the following year. After the 1901 season, Nichols purchased an interest in a minor league franchise in Kansas City, the

Kansas City Blue Stockings The Kansas City Blue Stockings were a minor league baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1902 and 1903, the Kansas City Blue Stockings played exclusively as members of the Class A level Western League, capturing the 1902 league champ ...

. He left the Beaneaters to manage and pitch for the Kansas City Blue Stockings, where he won a total of 48 games in 1902 and 1903. After a two-year hiatus from the major leagues, Nichols returned to the 20-win plateau for the 11th and final time in his career in 1904 for a new team, the

. The Philadelphia Phillies picked him up off waivers in 1905, and he finished his career with them in 1906, playing his final game on May 18, 1906. Nichols retired with 362 wins, 208 losses, 1,881 strikeouts and a 2.96 ERA. Nichols's win total was exceeded at the time only by

Cy Young Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Born in Gilmore, Ohio, he worked on his family's farm as a youth before starting his professional baseball career. Young entered th ...

and Pud Galvin and is now the seventh highest total in major league history. His 5,067 innings pitched ranks 11th all-time. He was the youngest pitcher to win 300 games, reaching that milestone at the age of 30.

Later life

After baseball, Nichols dabbled in the motion picture industry, partnering with Joe Tinker in a business that distributed movies to theatres in the midwest. An accomplished bowler, Nichols also opened bowling alleys in the Kansas City area. He won Kansas City's Class A bowling championship at age 64. Nichols was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1949. He was said to have been proud of two things: his Hall of Fame selection and the fact that he had never been replaced in a game by a relief pitcher. In October 1952, the 83-year-old Nichols was admitted to Menorah Hospital in Kansas City to investigate a complaint with his neck. Doctors ordered tests, but Nichols would not submit to them until after the seventh game of the World Series ended. He was later diagnosed with

carcinomatosis Carcinosis, or carcinomatosis, is disseminated cancer, forms of metastasis, whether used generally or in specific patterns of spread. Usage Carcinomatosis is often restricted to tumors of epithelial origin, adenocarcinomas, while sarcomatosis desc ...

, cancer that had spread throughout his body. He died on April 11, 1953.

Quotes

Nichols took pride in throwing complete games, stating, "I take pride in two things. My election to baseball's Hall of Fame and the fact I never was removed from a game for a relief hurler."

References

* * Bill Felber (2007), ''A Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters and the Battle For the 1897 Pennant''. University of Nebraska Press. , pg 251

External links