Don Nicholas

Donald Leigh Nicholas
(The Phoenix Flash)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 7", Weight 150 lb.
• High School North Phoenix High School
• 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

BR page

Biographical Information

Don Nicholas was a left-handed hitter who spent 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 spent 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 immediately became 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 had two good seasons immediately after that, 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 was purchased by the Chicago White Sox from Brooklyn on October 16, 1951. He got his chance in the majors with the White Sox in 1952 and 1954, being used mostly as a pinch runner. He was hitless in his only 2 at-bats in 10 games.

With his major league time finished early in 1954, Nicholas spent 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 ended 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.

Career Highlights

• Stolen Base Titles:
  • 1948 Eastern Shore League 82
  • 1949 Piedmont League 47
  • 1952 Southern Association 84
  • 1953 American Association 41
  • 1954 International League 37
  • 1957 Southern Association 16

Sources

• Baseball Players of the 1950s

Related Sites

• BR Minors page