03 March, 2006

Madisonian in Baseball HOF

As I related previously, one of the questions from last week's trivia contest was:

I am a Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher who was born in Madison, WI and won 30 games 7 times during the 1890s. Who am I?

The answer is Kid Nichols.

Charles "Kid" Nichols ranks among the game's all-time winners, totaling 360 victories over a 15-year major league career. As a 20-year-old rookie in 1890, he led the Boston Beaneaters with 27 victories. He went on to win 30 or more games a record seven times, compiling 10 straight years of 20-plus wins and leading the league in victories in three consecutive seasons (1896-‘98). Remarkably, he completed 531 of the 561 games he started. In his first nine seasons with Boston, he sparked the club to five league championships.

Did You Know... that after retiring from big league baseball in 1906, Kid Nichols went on to become one of the finest pro bowlers in Kansas City, Missouri, winning a Class A Championship?


How wonderfully Wisconsin that he retired from baseball only to become a professional bowler.

Nichols' career (baseball) stats can be found at this page.

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