View source for Kid Nichols

{{Short description|American baseball player (1869–1953)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox baseball biography
|name=Kid Nichols
|image=1904 Kid Nichols.jpeg
|image_size=150px
|caption=Nichols in 1904
|position=[[Pitcher]]
|birth_date={{birth date|mf=yes|1869|9|14}}
|birth_place=[[Madison, Wisconsin]], U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|mf=yes|1953|4|11|1869|9|14}}
|death_place=[[Kansas City, Missouri]], U.S.
|bats=Switch
|throws=Right
|debutleague=MLB
|debutdate=April 23
|debutyear=1890
|debutteam=Boston Beaneaters
|finalleague=MLB
|finaldate=May 18
|finalyear=1906
|finalteam=Philadelphia Phillies
|statleague=MLB
|stat1label=[[Win–loss record (pitching)|Win–loss record]]
|stat1value=362–208
|stat2label=[[Earned run average]]
|stat2value=2.96
|stat3label=[[Strikeout]]s
|stat3value=1,881
|stat4label=Managerial record
|stat4value=80–88
|stat5label=Winning %
|stat5value={{winning percentage|80|88}}
|teams=
'''As player'''
* [[Boston Beaneaters]] ({{mlby|1890}}–{{mlby|1901}})
* [[St. Louis Cardinals]] ({{mlby|1904}}–{{mlby|1905}})
* [[Philadelphia Phillies]] ({{mlby|1905}}–{{mlby|1906}})
'''As manager'''
* [[St. Louis Cardinals]] ({{mlby|1904}}–{{mlby|1905}})
|highlights=
* 3× [[List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders|NL wins leader]] (1896–1898)
* [[Ivan Allen Jr. Braves Museum and Hall of Fame|Braves Hall of Fame]]
|hoflink = National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
|hoftype = National
|hofdate = [[1949 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|1949]]
|hofmethod = Old-Timers Committee
}}
'''Charles Augustus''' "'''Kid'''" '''Nichols''' (September 14, 1869 – April 11, 1953) was an American [[Major League Baseball]] (MLB) [[pitcher]] who played for the [[Boston Beaneaters]], [[St. Louis Cardinals]] and [[Philadelphia Phillies]] from 1890 to 1906.  A [[switch hitter]] who threw right-handed, he was listed at {{convert|5|ft|10|in}} and {{convert|175|lbs}}. 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]].<ref name=SABR>{{cite web|url=http://research.sabr.org/journals/nichols-youngest-to-win-300|title=Nichols Youngest to Win 300|first=John J.|last=O'Malley|work=The Baseball Biography Project|publisher=Society for American Baseball Research|access-date=January 30, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304083549/http://research.sabr.org/journals/nichols-youngest-to-win-300|archive-date=March 4, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Early life ==

Nichols was born on September 14, 1869, in [[Madison, Wisconsin]]. 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]] in 1859. Robert and Christina had several children together.<ref>Bogovich, pp. 5-7.</ref>

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.<ref name=Ghosts>{{cite book|last=Fleitz|first=David|title=Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown|year=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=1476602514|page=1887|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AGxx5OKD2gC&q=butcher}}</ref>

== Baseball career ==
[[File:Charles Augustus "Kid" Nichols, Pitcher, Omaha Omahogs- Lambs, from the Old Judge series (N172) for Old Judge Cigarettes MET DP846333.jpg|alt=Standing man in baseball uniform with bat|left|thumb|Kid Nichols, 1889]]
Before he turned 18 years old, Nichols had debuted in the minor leagues with the 1887 [[Kansas City Cowboys (Western League)|Kansas City Cowboys]] of the [[Western League (original)|Western League]], earning an 18–12 [[win–loss record]] that season. He spent 1888 between the [[Kansas City Blues (1885-1901)|Kansas City Blues]] of the [[Western Association]] and Memphis of the [[Southern League (1885–1899)|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.<ref name=BRM>{{cite web|title=Kid Nichols Minor League Statistics and History|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=nichol006cha|publisher=[[Baseball-Reference.com]]|access-date=December 28, 2014}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Cooperstown: Hall of Fame Players|author=Paul Adomites; David Nemec; Matthew D. Greenberger; Dan Scholssberg; Dick Johnson; Mike Tully; Pete Palmer; Stuart Shea|date=2002|publisher=Publications International, Ltd.|page=47}}</ref> Nichols recorded a 27–19 win–loss record, a 2.23 [[earned run average]] (ERA) and 222 [[strikeout]]s, 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. [[Baseball-Reference.com]] calculates that Nichols led the team in [[wins above replacement]] in 1890 and 1892 through 1898.<ref name=BravesBR>{{cite web|title=Atlanta Braves Team History and Encyclopedia|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/ATL/|publisher=[[Baseball-Reference.com]]|access-date=December 28, 2014}}</ref>

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]].  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 [[St. Louis Cardinals]]. 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]] and [[Pud Galvin]] and is now [[List of Major League Baseball career wins leaders|the seventh highest total in major league history]]. His 5,067{{fraction|1|3}} innings pitched ranks 11th all-time. He was the youngest pitcher to win 300 games,<ref name=SABR /> reaching that milestone at the age of 30.<ref name=BR>{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/nichoki01.shtml|title=Kid Nichols Statistics and History|publisher=Baseball-Reference.com|access-date=January 30, 2013}}</ref>

== 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 [[Ten-pin bowling|bowler]], Nichols also opened bowling alleys in the Kansas City area. He won Kansas City's Class A bowling championship at age 64.<ref>Bill Ferber (2007) ''A Game of Baseball: The Orioles, The Beaneaters and The Battle For The 1897 Pennant'', University of Nebraska Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8032-1136-0}}, pg. 251</ref>

Nichols was inducted into the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|National Baseball Hall of Fame]] in [[1949 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|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.<ref name=Tribune>{{cite news|title=Kid Nichols, Hall of Fame hurler, dies|url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1953/04/12/page/55/article/kid-nichols-hall-of-fame-hurler-dies|access-date=December 28, 2014|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=April 12, 1953}}</ref>

In October 1952, the 83-year-old Nichols was admitted to [[Menorah Medical Center|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]], cancer that had spread throughout his body. He died on April 11, 1953.<ref>Bogovich, p. 224.</ref>

== 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."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/cards.php?p=nichoki01 |website=baseball-almanac|title=Kid Nichols Baseball Cards by Baseball Almanac}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fleitz |first1=David |title=Ghosts in the Gallery at Cooperstown Sixteen Little-Known Members of the Hall of Fame |date=2015 |publisher=mcfarland}}</ref>

== See also ==

{{Portal|Biography|Baseball}}
* [[List of Major League Baseball career wins leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball career shutout leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball career hit batsmen leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual shutout leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual saves leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball player-managers]]

== References ==

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
* {{cite book|last=Bogovich|first=Richard|title=Kid Nichols: A Biography of the Hall of Fame Pitcher|year=2012|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0786492800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spHaSvXquAIC}}
* Bill Felber (2007), ''A Game of Brawl: The Orioles, the Beaneaters and the Battle For the 1897 Pennant''. University of Nebraska Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8032-2636-4}}, pg 251

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
* {{bbhof|nichols-kid}}
{{Baseballstats|mlb=119761|br=n/nichoki01|brm=nichol006cha}}
* Obituary – [http://thedeadballera.com/Obits/Obits_N/Nichols.Kid.Obit.html TheDeadballEra.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019222424/http://thedeadballera.com/Obits/Obits_N/Nichols.Kid.Obit.html |date=October 19, 2010 }}
* {{Find a Grave|4649}}

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{{s-ach|ach}}
{{succession box| title=[[Save (baseball)|All-Time Saves Leader]]| years=1899–1906<br><small>(shared with Mullanane 1899–1903)</small> | before=[[Tony Mullane]]| after=[[Joe McGinnity]]}}
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{{1949 Baseball HOF}}
{{Baseball Hall of Fame members}}
{{St. Louis Cardinals HOF}}
{{Philadelphia Phillies HOF}}
{{1891 Boston Beaneaters}}
{{1892 Boston Beaneaters}}
{{1893 Boston Beaneaters}}
{{1897 Boston Beaneaters}}
{{1898 Boston Beaneaters}}
{{NL wins champions}}
{{300 win club}}
{{Braves Hall of Fame}}
{{Atlanta Braves HOF}}
{{Atlanta Braves Opening Day starting pitchers}}
{{St. Louis Cardinals managers|width=100}}

{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, Kid}}
[[Category:1869 births]]
[[Category:1953 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century baseball players]]
[[Category:19th-century American sportsmen]]
[[Category:National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:Major League Baseball player-managers]]
[[Category:Major League Baseball pitchers]]
[[Category:Boston Beaneaters players]]
[[Category:St. Louis Cardinals players]]
[[Category:St. Louis Cardinals managers]]
[[Category:Philadelphia Phillies players]]
[[Category:National League (baseball) wins champions]]
[[Category:Minor league baseball managers]]
[[Category:Kansas City Cowboys (minor league) players]]
[[Category:Memphis Grays players]]
[[Category:Kansas City Blues (baseball) players]]
[[Category:Omaha Omahogs players]]
[[Category:Omaha Lambs players]]
[[Category:Kansas City Blue Stockings players]]
[[Category:Pueblo Indians players]]
[[Category:Baseball players from Madison, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Missouri]]
[[Category:Oshkosh Indians players]]