Don Nicholas

From BR Bullpen

Donald Leigh Nicholas

Bats Left, Throws Right
Height 5' 7", Weight 150 lb.

Debut April 16, 1952
Final Game May 9, 1954
Born October 30, 1930 in Phoenix, AZ USA
Died October 23, 2007 in Garden Grove, CA USA

[edit] Biographical Information

Don Nicholas was a left-hand hitter who would spend a dozen years in pro ball from 1948 to 1959. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before the 1948 season. He would spend his first season with the Cambridge Dodgers of the Eastern Shore League, playing 95 games at the shortstop position and hitting at a .264 average. Don would immediately become a favorite in the ESL as he managed to draw 130 bases on balls (three short of the league record) and set the league record for stolen bases, with 82 to his credit, which he still held at the time the league folded.

Don would have two good seasons immediately ahead, hitting .299 for the Elmira Pioneers and the St. Paul Saints in 1950 and then ringing up a .303 average with St. Paul and the Mobile Bears as an outfielder in 1951. Nicholas would be purchased by the Chicago White Sox from the Brooklyn Dodgers on October 16, 1951. He would get his chance in the majors with the White Sox in 1952 and 1954, being used mostly as a pinch runner and defensive replacement and was hitless in his only two at-bats in ten games.

With his major league time finished early in 1954, Nicholas would spend six more seasons in pro baseball, all in the high minors, having his best year with the Nashville Volunteers in 1957, hitting at a .340 clip. Don would end his 12-season baseball career in 1959 with the Savannah Reds at age 28 with a career minor league average of .274 with 31 home runs while appearing in 1,242 games.

Nicholas became a longtime employee of Quality Park Products, a division of the Alco-Standard Corporation and was retired in Garden Grove, CA at the time of his death on October 23, 2007.