Where does Kid Nichols rank among baseball greats?
Kid Nichols ranks #26 among the Top 50 all-time at SP. Rankings ⇒ Best Season: 1898 Nichols posted a 31-12 record, completing 40 of his 42 starts, and spinning five shutouts. He walked just 85 batters in 388 innings, allowing 316 hits. His 2.13 ERA was the second-lowest of his career. Counting the Gate Long after he had retired, Nichols recalled what it was like for pitchers in 19thc entury baseball: “Pitching wasn’t the only job pitchers had in the Nineties. The day after we had pitched a game it was our duty to stand at the gate, and afterwards to count the tickets. I remember counting 30,000 tickets one day at the Polo Grounds in New York. That was a tougher assignment than pitching a ull nine innings.” The More Things Change It’s common today for fans of the game and former players criticize the attitude of the modern ballplayer. But file that under the more things change, the more they stay the same. Here’s a quote from a former big league pitcher: “Players have a different philos
