Kid Nichols

Charles Augustus Nichols won 361 games over 15 major league seasons. He won 30 or more games seven times, pitched the Boston Beaneaters to five National League pennants in the 1890s, and reached 300 career wins before his 31st birthday, faster than any pitcher who has ever played. They called him "Kid" because he weighed only 135 pounds when he joined the Kansas City Cowboys at age 17, and his older teammates mistook him for the bat boy.

Madison to Boston

Nichols was born on September 14, 1869, in Madison, Wisconsin. He pitched for semipro and minor league teams in the Midwest before the Boston Beaneaters signed him for the 1890 season. He won 27 games as a rookie and never won fewer than 20 in any of his first ten seasons.

He threw overhand at a time when many pitchers still used sidearm or underhand deliveries, and he relied on a fastball and a curveball thrown with pinpoint control. He walked few batters and completed nearly every game he started. In the 1890s, that was the expectation, but Nichols met it with a consistency that separated him from his contemporaries.

Five Pennants

The Beaneaters won the National League pennant in 1891, 1892, 1893, 1897, and 1898. Nichols was the staff anchor throughout. He went 30-17 in 1891, 35-16 in 1892, 34-14 in 1893, 31-11 in 1897, and 31-12 in 1898. The only year in that span when he did not win 30 was 1895, when he went 26-16. In 1894 he went 32-13 and in 1896 he went 30-14, giving him 30 or more wins in seven of those nine seasons.

He worked alongside fellow Hall of Famer John Clarkson during the early 1890s and carried the staff on his own after Clarkson's departure. The Beaneaters played in the Temple Cup, the postseason series of the 1890s, but their record in those matchups was uneven, and the Temple Cup never carried the weight that the World Series would later assume.

Late Career

Nichols left the Beaneaters after the 1901 season, purchased an interest in the Kansas City Blue Stockings of the Western League, and served as their player-manager for two seasons, going 26-7 in 1902 and winning the league pennant. He returned to the major leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1904, going 21-13, and pitched for the Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies in 1905 before retiring in 1906 at age 36. His final record was 361-208 with a 2.96 ERA. He completed 531 of his 561 career starts.

After baseball, Nichols worked as a bowling alley operator and coach in Kansas City, where he had settled. He lived long enough to see the game transform entirely from the one he had played.

Recognition

The Old Timers Committee elected Nichols to the Hall of Fame in 1949. He died on April 11, 1953, in Kansas City, Missouri, at age 83. His 361 wins placed him behind only Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and Pud Galvin at the time of his induction. The speed at which he accumulated them remains unmatched.