Milt Nielsen

Milton Robert Nielsen

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 11", Weight 190 lb.
• High School Lake Benton High School
• Debut September 27, 1949
• Final Game July 4, 1951
• Born February 8, 1925 in Tyler, MN USA
• Died August 1, 2005 in Mankato, MN USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Milt Nielsen was a first baseman/outfielder nine years (1946-1954), all in the minors except for two cups of coffee in the American League (1949 and 1951). He was born on February 8, 1925, in Tyler, MN. He graduated from high school in 1943 at age 18 and entered the U. S. Armed Forces for the duration of World War II (WK).

Signed by the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent in 1946, he broke into Organized Baseball in 1946 at age 21 with the Bakersfield Indians in the California League. He played for Bakersfield (1946) and the Oklahoma City Indians in the Texas League (1947-1949) when, at 24 years of age, he broke into the big leagues on September 27, 1949, with the Cleveland Indians. He finished the season with Cleveland and was optioned to the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League (1950-1951). Recalled by Cleveland, he played his final MLB game on July 4, 1951 at age 26 and was returned to the Padres.

He played with the Padres (1951) and the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association (1952-1954), ending his baseball career at age 29.

In 1949, his best year in the minors, he had 16 home runs and 107 RBI at (.330). Overall in MLB, he had 1 hit, a single, and 2 runs at (.067/.222/.067) in 22 games. Overall in the minors, he had 68 home runs and 446 RBI.

Sources

Principal sources for Milt Nielsen include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) ; The Pacific Coast League: A Statistical History, 1903-1957 by Dennis Snelling; The Texas League in Baseball, 1888-1958 by Marshall D. Wright; The American Association: Year-By-Year Statistics for the Baseball Minor League, 1902-1952 by Marshall D. Wright; and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Milt Nielsen at the SABR Bio Project
• Milt Nielsen at the Baseball Almanac
• Bio at Baseball Page
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)