My Ancestor Kid Nichols

For my FYE we had to research one of our ancestors. I did some digging and found Kid Nichols my great great grandfather. Since he was a professional baseball player, it was difficult to find information regarding his home life, but he was very successful on the field. 

My great great grandfather, Charles Augustus "Kid" Nichols was born on September 14, 1869 in Madison, Wisconsin.  

His father, my great great great grandfather, was a butcher. Around 1881, Charles and most of his siblings moved with their parents to Kansas City, Missouri. There he played baseball and became known around the town for his talents.

"June 14, 1887 was the date of his first pro game. Nichols ended up as the winning pitcher in a 7-6 outcome at Lincoln, Nebraska.  It has been widely reported that Charles Nichols received the nickname “Kid” upon joining the club, when the older players either mistook him for a batboy or at least thought he looked more like one than he did a professional player.  His weight at the time was estimated to be no more than 135 pounds". 

He was known around the nation, Baseball Hall says, "Nichols was an immediate success, and after being signed by Boston in 1890 he won 20 or more games every year for his first 10 seasons, relying almost completely on his fastball throughout his career".

He found the most success in 1898 when he posted a 31-12 record. He completed 40 of his 42 starts and had five shutouts, walking only 85 batters in 388 innings. He posted a 2.13 ERA, the second-best of his career. He completed a total of 532 games out of the 562 he started during his time in baseball. He threw more than 300 innings in every season but three, and pitched more than 400 five times.

When he decided to stop playing baseball, he remained a part of the sport, managing both the Oshkosh Indians of the Wisconsin-Illinois League in 1908 and the Bonham Sliders of the Texas-Oklahoma League in 1914.

It's so interesting to know about my past relatives and how things that interested them interests my family too. My dad (Kid's great grandson) has played baseball his whole life. In 1994-1998 he played for the Philadelphia Phillies. My uncle (my dad's brother) also played professional baseball. My brothers have also been playing their whole life. 

I guess baseball just runs in the family.