Nicholas Apollonio

Nicholas T. Apollonio

• Born 1843 in New York, NY USA
• Died April 1, 1911 in Winchester, MA USA

Biographical Information

Nicholas Apollonio served as the president of the Boston Red Stockings in the 1870s.

The son of immigrants from Italy, he was born in New York, NY but grew up mainly in Boston, MA. He worked as a bookkeeper for a hardware company. In 1872, he joined a group of persons who offered their assistance to the Boston Baseball Club, in order to help with ticket sales and other financial matters. He was elected treasurer of the group and by 1874 was chosen to be the group's president.

He served as president for three years, which turned out to be pivotal for the club: its last two in the National Association in 1874 and 1875, and its first in the National League as the Boston Red Caps in 1876. The team won the league championship in both 1874 and 1875, and in spite of a costly trip to England in 1874, began to turn a profit the next year. Another major problem however was that four players, led by star pitcher Al Spalding, left the team to join the Chicago White Stockings after 1875.

To compensate for Spalding's absence, Apollonio signed Joe Borden to be the team's pitcher in 1876. He turned out to be a flop and Boston finished in fourth place in the National League's initial season. The team's other directors were not pleased by that outcome, accusing Apollonio of "the hiring of incompetent players" and voted him out in December while he was off in Cleveland, OH to attend the league meetings. He was replaced by Arthur Soden.

He left baseball after that but continued his successful business career. He passed away in 1911.

Related Sites

• Nicholas Apollonio at the SABR Bio Project