Fred Nicholson

{{Short description|American baseball player (1894–1972)}}

{{About|the major league baseball player|the Australian rugby union player|Fred Nicholson (rugby union)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2024}}

{{Infobox baseball biography

|name=Fred Nicholson

|position=Outfielder

|image=1917 Fred Nicholson (2).jpeg

|bats=Right

|throws=Right

|birth_date={{Birth date|1894|9|1}}

|birth_place=Honey Grove, Texas, U.S.

|death_date={{death date and age|1972|1|23|1894|9|1}}

|death_place=Kilgore, Texas, U.S.

|debutleague = MLB

|debutdate=April 11

|debutyear=1917

|debutteam= Detroit Tigers

|finalleague = MLB

|finaldate=September 16

|finalyear=1922

|finalteam= Boston Braves

|statleague = MLB

|stat1label=Batting average

|stat1value=.311

|stat2label=Home runs

|stat2value=12

|stat3label=Runs batted in

|stat3value=108

|teams=

• Detroit Tigers (1917)
• Pittsburgh Pirates (1919–1920)
• Boston Braves (1921–1922)

}}

Fred Nicholson (September 1, 1894 – January 23, 1972), was a Major League Baseball player who played outfielder from {{mlby|1912}}-{{mlby|1922}}. He would play for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Braves, and Detroit Tigers.

Despite never playing fulltime, Nicholson proved to be a good contact hitter in an era where pitchers tended to dominate in stats. With the Pirates in 1920, Nicholson would finish the season with an astounding .360 batting average in 271 plate appearances. Amazingly, despite such abilities with the bat, Pittsburgh would trade him in January 1921 to the Braves where he would end up batting .327 in 272 plate appearances. Nicholson would regress in 1922, batting just .252 and then leave pro baseball for ten years, before returning in the minor leagues from 1932 to 1935. Nevertheless, Nicholson's career .311 batting average in 891 plate appearances was exceptional during the period in which he played.