Bob Nieman

Baseball history was made at Boston’s Fenway Park on Friday afternoon, September 14, 1951. In the top of the second inning, in his first major-league at-bat, Bob Nieman of the visiting St. Louis Browns hit Mickey McDermott’s low-and-away 1-2 pitch into the screen above Fenway’s Green Monster. An inning later, in his next trip to the plate, Nieman worked McDermott to a full-count before blasting the southpaw’s inside fastball onto Lansdowne Street for another homer. Nieman became the first major-leaguer since Charlie Reilly of the 1889 American Association’s Columbus Solons to homer twice in his first game. As of 2021, Nieman remains the only big-leaguer to go deep in the first two at-bats of his debut.1

One of the most overlooked players of his generation, Bob Nieman was never selected to an All-Star team despite posting an outstanding 132 OPS+ over his 12-year (1951-1962) major-league career.2 The right-handed-hitting corner outfielder compiled a .295 lifetime batting average for six teams and enjoyed his greatest success with the Baltimore Orioles, batting .301 in 609 games (143 games while the team was in St. Louis and 466 games when he rejoined the franchise in Baltimore). After hanging up his spikes, Nieman spent nearly two decades scouting for a handful of clubs.

Robert “Bob” Charles Nieman was born on January 26, 1927 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Joseph and Elsie (Funke) Nieman. Bona was his older sister, and their maternal grandfather was born in Germany. Joseph Nieman, a production manager in the dairy industry according to the 1940 Census, had been a catcher in semipro baseball.3 Father and son attended Reds games at Crosley Field. When Bob reached the majors, he met veterans like Eddie Joost and Clyde Vollmer that he’d rooted for there as a child.4

Nieman attended Withrow High School in the affluent Hyde Park neighborhood on the east side of the Queen City. By his 1945 graduation, the burly 5-foot-11, 195-pounder had opportunities to advance in two sports. As Cincinnati’s all-city senior fullback, he was offered several football scholarships. In baseball, he was a catcher like his father, good enough to attract scouts. In addition to his hometown Reds, the Red Sox, Phillies and Browns all expressed interest.5 “I was offered $5,000 in 1945, coming out of high school, but I had a kidney problem. I still got drafted, though,” Nieman recalled. “There was a little thing called World War II.”6

The kidney problem sent Nieman to a hospital bed for more than half of his one-year U.S. Army stint.7 “I wound up with nephritis,” he explained. “For almost a full year after I’d been discharged from the service, I wasn’t much good for anything.”8 Nieman enrolled at the University of Cincinnati.9 After recovering his strength, he tried out for the Reds in 1947 and worked out with the team for three weeks.10 Scout Angus King, the former football coach at Withrow High, signed him to a Reds contract for 1948.11 “I signed for $1,500 in 1948 and a contract for $250 a month,” Nieman recalled.12

On a questionnaire that he filled out prior to the 1948 season, Nieman stated his ambition, “To catch for the Cincinnati Reds.”13 However, an off-season operation to remove a tumor on his throwing hand soon forced him to shift to the outfield.14 The procedure did not slow him down at the plate. For the Class D Muncie (IN) Reds, his batting average was .403 as late as June 20.15 He smashed Ohio-Indiana League records for extra-base hits (77) and home runs (23) and led the circuit in hitting (.367) and doubles (45).16 His RBI total was a gaudy 131.17

On June 15, 1948, Nieman married Patricia Westgate. “I’ve known Patricia since she was 15,” he explained. “We went to high school together in Cincinnati.”18 She majored in outdoor advertising at Cincinnati, where Nieman was studying journalism. That fall, they both transferred to Kent State University, about 240 miles away in northeast Ohio.19

Nieman began 1949 with the Sunbury (PA) Reds in the Class B Interstate League. After batting .292 with five homers in 28 games, he advanced to the Single-A Charleston (WV) Senators of the Central League, where he hit .306 in 92 contests. At the end of the year, he joined the Tulsa (OK) Oilers of the Double-A Texas League.

Back at Tulsa in 1950, Nieman hit safely in his first 17 games.20 Despite batting .306 in 32 contests, he was sent down to the Single-A South Atlantic League in late-May and batted .292 for the Columbia (SC) Reds in 87 contests.

When Nieman returned to Tulsa in 1951, manager Al Vincent had him swing a bat while sitting in a chair trying to correct his overstriding.21 Though Nieman got off to a .307 start through 35 games, Tulsa preferred to start 30-somethings Russ Burns and Eddie Knoblauch in their outfield, along with Bob “Hurricane” Hazle. Consequently, Nieman joined the circuit’s unaffiliated Oklahoma City Indians as a $2,000 waiver purchase in the first week of June. “I suppose that is the best thing that ever happened to me in baseball,” he reflected later. “But I was not sure of it at the time.”22

St. Louis Browns boss Bill Veeck owned part of the Oklahoma City club, as well as their Texas League rivals, the San Antonio Missions. That summer, National Association President George Trautman ordered him to keep one or the other.23 As part of the settlement, it was decided that Nieman and teammates Duke Markell and Frank Kellert would join the Browns organization at the end of the season. Before that happened, Nieman batted .328 in 109 games for Oklahoma City. His 10 homers included a 15th-inning blast to beat his former Tulsa teammates on August 5.24 Ten days later, his monstrous blast in Shreveport, Louisiana knocked out the neon clock above the centerfield scoreboard.25 After the season finale in Fort Worth, Texas, Nieman picked up his wife in Oklahoma City, dropped her off at her father’s house in Cincinnati and joined the Browns in Boston on September 14.26

Nieman debuted that night, batting fifth and playing left field. The Red Sox scored five times in the bottom of the first. He notched an outfield assist on the final out of the inning when Boston southpaw Mickey McDermott was caught in a rundown after rounding first base too far on a single. By the top of the third, the Browns pulled within 7-4 on Nieman’s historic pair of home runs.

“[Nieman’s] just a lot of boy,” observed teammate Satchel Paige. “Leans into that ball pretty good and hits the pitch where it is.” Though speed was never Nieman’s strength, he made it three hits in his debut by bunting for a ninth-inning single in St. Louis’ 9-6 defeat. “He runs rather well. Peculiarly maybe,” observed Browns skipper Zack Taylor. “He gets there with a rolling gate that reminds me of Ducky Medwick.”27

The next day, Nieman’s tie-breaking single with two outs in the eighth helped deliver the last-place Browns a rare victory. Nieman also earned his first byline in The Sporting News when an article headlined “Bob’s First Press Assignment — Telling About His Own Debut” appeared in the September 26 issue. On that date, Nieman enjoyed a four-hit game at Sportsman’s Park against the Tigers. He finished his first taste of American League play with a .372 average in 12 games as the Browns completed the 1951 season with a 52-102 record.

The Browns let Nieman arrive a few days late for spring training in 1952 to claim his journalism degree. After he reached camp, coach Bob Scheffing hit him extra fungoes to improve his fielding. Nieman began the year as new St. Louis manager Rogers Hornsby’s cleanup hitter –at least when the opposition pitched a southpaw. “I’m convinced I’ll hit even better if I’m in there every day,” Nieman insisted. “That sharpens my eyes. The platoon business is greatly overexaggerated.”28

That spring, Nieman described his remedy for slumps. “Instead of switching to a lighter bat like most players, I use a heavier bat for a few days, then go back to a lighter one,” he said.29 When he found himself struggling that summer, however, he asked Browns pitcher Duane Pillette if he could see anything wrong. Pillette told Nieman to open up his stance to see the pitcher better and to use his strength by pulling the ball. “I changed my stance immediately and started hammering the ball into left field and over the fences,” Nieman said.30 On the next-to-last weekend of the season, Nieman’s second two-homer game in the majors included a game-ending blast to beat the White Sox. He finished his first full year as the seventh-place Browns leader in batting (.289), homers (18) and RBIs (74).

After playing his weight down from 210-pounds in spring training to 190-pounds by the end of the schedule, Nieman vowed to keep the extra pounds off playing intramural basketball. His off-season plans also included plenty of golf, and card games with the Akron Bridge Club.31 In addition, Nieman made 14 speeches on the Ohio banquet circuit, joined the Sigma Delta Chi society of professional journalists, and wrote regularly for the Kent Evening Record, Ravenna and Courier Tribune newspapers.32

The biggest story concerning his career was the six-player deal on December 4 that sent Nieman, along with Owen Friend and Jay Porter to Detroit for Virgil Trucks, Hal White, and Johnny Groth. “We needed a speedy man to play center field for us,” explained Veeck in describing Groth.33 While Nieman was the only major talent heading to the Tigers, it had taken a substantial payment to pry him away from the Browns. Not only did St. Louis receive the speedy center fielder in Groth, but in Trucks they gained a valuable pitcher who had won 10 or more games in seven seasons. Trucks would enjoy his only 20-win season in 1953, although 15 of his wins came after he was traded to the White Sox in June. “We couldn’t give up as much for [Nieman] as the Tigers did,” remarked Red Sox GM Joe Cronin, whose club also wanted the Ohioan.34

Nieman wrote training camp reports for the Detroit Free Press during his first Tigers spring training.35 He was in the Opening Day lineup for the first time in his career, against the Browns in St. Louis of all places. Like Nieman’s first club, the Tigers decided he was better suited for left field than right by season’s end. Overall, he started a career-high 132 games, and only seven American Leaguers produced more than Nieman’s 52 extra-base hits. A poor September ruined his chance to bat .300. He finished the year hitting .281 in 142 games with 15 homers and 69 RBIs.

That winter, Nieman lived in Detroit and did some radio work.36 He penned a baseball fantasy called Gone with the Wind-Up.37 He also worked out with an exerciser that teammate Johnny Pesky loaned him, a board with notches and ridges designed to toughen the legs. “I’m rather heavy legged and must watch myself,” Nieman said.38

Leg problems hampered him throughout 1954, though, and Nieman started only 59 games.39 When he was healthy, his chances to play were limited by the emergence of rookies Al Kaline and Bill Tuttle, both of whom claimed starting outfield jobs. Veteran Jim Delsing moved over to left from center to fill out the trio. “They decided to stress defense and use the young fellows,” Nieman recalled. “What they really needed was some runs, and I know I could have driven them in, even though I’m not a fancy dan outfielder.”40

Nevertheless, Nieman enjoyed living in Detroit. After the season, he sold cars and men’s clothing, attended Lions football games, and hung out at the bowling alley owned by pitcher Steve Gromek.41 But two years and two days after he’d joined the Tigers in a trade, he left the club in another six-player transaction. The Chicago White Sox, who had initially tried to acquire Nieman at the ’54 trading deadline, swapped former batting champion Ferris Fain, platoon first-baseman Jack Phillips and pitcher, Leo Cristante, to get him, first-sacker Walt Dropo and southpaw Ted Gray. White Sox GM Frank Lane predicted the acquisitions of Nieman and Dropo would deliver a pennant for his club, which was coming off a 94-win season. “I always remember Bill Veeck’s comment that, ‘Nieman’s a whacker’, which was his term for a solid power hitter,” said Lane. “I’ve always felt that way about him too.”42

Early in the 1955 season, Nieman homered twice and drove in a career-high seven runs in Chicago’s 29-6 victory on April 23 in Kansas City. Beginning with a pulled thigh muscle in spring training, however, leg issues continued to plague him. Then, on July 14, he was hit on the wrist by a pitch.43 Though it wasn’t broken, he slumped badly for more than a month after returning to action and needed a strong September to finish the season batting .283 with 11 homers in only 83 games. Nevertheless, Nieman’s .826 OPS would’ve ranked ninth in the AL had he made enough plate appearances to qualify, but Minnie Minoso, Jim Busby and Jim Rivera were manager Marty Marion’s regular outfielders. “I didn’t play Nieman enough,” Marion remarked. “But he was hurt, and we got sidetracked on him.”44

Nieman’s chances to start grew even slimmer following Chicago’s October acquisition of perennial All-Star Larry Doby. Twenty-five games into the 1956 season, Nieman was traded to the Orioles in another six-player deal. He went to Baltimore with aging star George Kell, right-hander Connie Johnson and reliever Mike Fornieles for All-Star pitcher Jim Wilson and outfielder Dave Philley.

In Nieman’s Orioles debut, he notched two hits against the White Sox at Comiskey Park. Three nights later in Baltimore, he went 4-for-4 against the Yankees, including a home run off Mickey McDermott that writer Jesse A. Linthicum described as “one of the longest ever hit in Memorial Stadium.”45 On June 11 against the Tigers, Nieman blasted another four-bagger through the centerfield hedges, 450-feet from home plate. Linthicum noted, “The clout is being discussed in the same language as New Yorkers speak of the long ones hit by Mickey Mantle.”46

Since April 1954, Nieman had been one of the few major leaguers to sport glasses on the field, though he initially used them only on defense.47 When he began batting with spectacles, he saved them for night games. “I’ll bet about 50 percent of the players in the majors should wear glasses but they’re too proud,” he told The Sporting News. “But one day, they’ll wake up and go to the specs like a lot of us have, just as soon as they learn you can buy more meat and potatoes wearing them.” He said he picked up line drives better wearing them and estimated that they boosted his batting average by up to 20 points.48 After the Orioles produced statistics showing that he was a much better hitter with glasses during his first few weeks with Baltimore, Nieman began wearing them full-time. On June 17 in Kansas City, in his first day game as a bespectacled ballplayer, he walked twice, singled, and hit a tie-breaking, three-run homer in the eighth inning.49

By season’s end, Nieman had enjoyed a personal-best 20-game hitting streak and his overall average of .320 placed him fifth in the American League. Augmented by 90 walks, his .436 on-base percentage ranked third. The burly slugger even legged out the only inside-the-park homer of his career, off Whitey Ford at Yankee Stadium. Nieman earned Most Valuable Oriole honors and finished seventh in AL MVP voting despite Baltimore’s 69-85 record. Mantle and Ted Williams were the only major leaguers with a higher OPS+ than Nieman’s 155 mark in 1956. “I wouldn’t trade Nieman for any other left fielder in the league,” insisted Orioles manager Paul Richards. “Yes, I mean Williams with his $100,000 salary and his age.”50

Nieman bought a home51 in Baltimore and succeeded Ernie Harwell as the host of that city’s Friday night television show, The Sports Circle.52 He became the Orioles player representative53 and signed a new contract for an estimated $25,000 salary.54

By Memorial Day 1957, however, Nieman was only batting .231 with two homers out of the cleanup spot. He was seeing a halo around pitched balls, particularly at night, on hazy days or late in afternoons. After the problem was diagnosed as weakness of a right eye muscle, he was assigned corrective exercises and prescribed new glasses.55 Nieman finished the year hitting .276 with 13 homers, including a game-ending shot against the White Sox on September 17 when his former club still had illusions of catching the Yankees for the pennant.

Nieman endured a tough spring training in 1958; battling a virus, a kink in his back, and sacroiliac ailment where the pelvis connects to the lower spine.56 When the regular season started, though, he batted an AL-leading .367 through June 2. That night in the fourth inning, Nieman was leading off third base when teammate Bob Boyd’s foul-ball liner drilled him in the hand, leaving a visible imprint of the baseball at the site of the contusion.57 Nieman couldn’t play at all for a month, and didn’t start again for nearly six weeks. There was a calcified lump on his hand when he returned. “I can’t snap my bat as quickly as I could before my hand was injured,” he said. “I have to commit myself on a pitch quicker than I once did.”58 Nevertheless, he produced a .325 batting average with 16 homers in 105 games. His 157 OPS+ figure was a career best, and missed time was the only thing that kept Nieman off the league’s official batting and slugging leaderboard.

After the season, he led a brief barnstorming tour through Maryland with players like Gus Triandos, Rocky Colavito and Mickey Vernon.59 In addition to selling insurance, he stayed busy that winter hosting two more TV shows, Working Wonders for hobbyists and Pin-Busters about bowling.60 Nieman and his wife owned a French poodle named Daiquiri that had given birth to 10 puppies in 1958. Sadly, Daiquiri succumbed to a liver ailment during spring training.61

Nieman bashed a career-high 21 homers in 1959 but batted only .254 before the All-Star break. A .335 second half raised his overall mark to .292, but he couldn’t start for three weeks because of a strained groin. When Nieman was able to play, Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams were the only American Leaguers to outperform him as measured by OPS+. On December 2, the Orioles traded him to the Cardinals for slugging outfielder-catcher Gene Green and career minor-leaguer Chuck Staniland.

With St. Louis, Nieman opened the 1960 season in a left-field platoon, but he requested a trade after Leon Wagner claimed the full-time job after a strong start.62 By June 16, however, the slumping Wagner was back in Triple-A and Nieman had seized the position for himself with a stretch of hot-hitting. He pulled a leg muscle that night in Cincinnati, however, and didn’t start again for 17 days.63 “Bob Nieman…saved my job for me,” insisted St. Louis skipper Solly Hemus. “He carried the whole team on his back until he injured his leg.”64 Nieman finished year with a .287 average and four homers in 188 at-bats.

Hemus considered platooning him with 40-year-old Stan Musial in 1961. After Nieman roomed with Musial briefly the previous season, The Sporting News identified him as the “champion snorer of the majors.”65 Nieman was making only his fourth start of the season on May 2 when he pulled a leg muscle trying to beat out an infield hit. Eight nights later in Cincinnati, he’d just taken his mother out to dinner on a road trip to Cincinnati when he learned that he’d be playing his home games in Ohio.66 The Cardinals had traded him to the Cleveland Indians for Joe Morgan and Mike Lee, neither of whom ever played a game for St. Louis.

Nieman pinch-hit once for Cleveland before he was hospitalized for torn leg muscles.67 He hit .354 in 39 games with the Indians and finished the year with a combined .378 average, albeit in only 82 at-bats.

He remained with the Indians in 1962 but made only two plate appearances before he was sold to San Francisco on April 29. Giants manager Alvin Dark specifically wanted him to be a right-handed pinch-hitter and had tried to acquire him the previous year.68 Nieman made only 30 at-bats, but hit .300, including his last two major-league hits on August 29, a homer and a single off the Milwaukee Braves’ Bob Hendley. The Giants won the National League pennant.

In the World Series against the Yankees, Nieman hurled pre-game batting practice for the Giants. “I don’t expect to be wearing this uniform next year, so I wanted to give them something to remember me by,” he explained.69 He saw action once, pinch-hitting in Game Four with the score tied in the seventh inning. After New York’s Marshall Bridges intentionally walked him to load the bases, Niemann left for a pinch runner. Two batters later, Chuck Hiller’s grand slam helped the Giants even the series, but they fell in seven games, ending Nieman’s major-league career.

The .847 OPS and 132 OPS+ that Nieman’s bat produced over a dozen seasons would have put him in elite company had injuries not limited him to an average of fewer than 100 games per year. In 1963, he finished his career in the Japanese Central League, batting .301 with 13 homers for the Nagoya-based Chunichi Dragons. Nieman told The Sporting News that he enjoyed the experience and rated the quality of play to be about Double-A. He returned home miffed that he hadn’t received a promised performance bonus for batting at least .295 because the Dragons considered Nieman’s 355 at-bats in 110 games to be too few. “They still owe me $3,000 and Commissioner Ford Frick is trying to collect for me,” he said.70

In 1964, Nieman managed Cleveland’s Double-A, Eastern League affiliate in Charleston, West Virginia to a .500 record. After one of his players was called out on strikes on July 24, Nieman took off his glasses and put them on umpire Andy Olsen, drawing a two-day suspension and a $25 fine.71

Nieman worked as an aide to Cleveland’s publicity director in 1965.72 After a year working in private business, he returned to the Indians’ organization scouting southern California.73 Alan Ashby, John Lowenstein and Jack Brohamer were three of the Cleveland draftees that he helped sign.74

After the 1969 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers hired Nieman as a special assignment scout, a role he held for three years.75 He then became the White Sox’s scouting supervisor, before moving into the same role for the A’s.76 When reporting on a weak-throwing player, he’d reportedly say, “The kid’s got a Nieman arm.”77

In late 1976, Nieman accepted what would be his last job in baseball, scouting for the Yankees. Bill Madden of New York’s Daily News wrote that Nieman was “regarded as one of the most thorough and astute scouts in the business.”78

Nieman’s first wife, Patricia, had died at age 40 in 1967 from a liver condition.79 After a seven-year marriage to Caryl (Shepard) that ended in divorce, Nieman married another Patricia in 1978.80 In all, he was the father to five stepchildren: Renee, Michael, Susan, Terry and Valerie.81

On March 10, 1985, Bob Nieman was at his home in Carson, California, preparing to travel to spring training the following day, when he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was 58. He is buried in Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana.

In 2015, Withrow High School posthumously inducted Nieman into its Hall of Fame.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Gregory H. Wolf and Bruce Harris and fact-checked by Kevin Larkin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted www.ancestry.com, www.baseball-reference.com, www.retrosheet.org and the United States census from 1930 and 1940.

Notes

1 Keith McDonald of the 2000 Reds homered in his first two career at-bats, but they came in two different games. Four modern players hit two home runs in their debuts, but not in their first two at-bats: Bert Campaneris (1964 Athletics), Mark Quinn (1999 Royals), J.P. Arencibia (2010 Blue Jays) and Trevor Story (2016 Rockies).

2 OPS+ measures a player’s on-base percentage plus slugging percentage compared to the league average of his contemporaries and adjusted for the ballparks in which he played.

3 Art Morrow, “Whattaman Nieman in Two-Homer Bow,” The Sporting News, September 26, 1951: 5.

4 Robert C. Nieman, “Bob’s First Press Assignment — Telling About His Own Debut,” The Sporting News, September 26, 1951: 5.

5 Morrow, “Whattaman Nieman in Two-Homer Bow.”

6 Al Mari, “George Steinbrenner’s Third Man Theme…,” Journal-News (Nyack, New York), June 8, 1978: 34.

7 Bob Nieman, “American Baseball Bureau Questionnaire,” March 19, 1948.

8 Morrow, “Whattaman Nieman in Two-Homer Bow.”

9 Nieman, “Bob’s First Press Assignment — Telling About His Own Debut.”

10 Nieman, “American Baseball Bureau Questionnaire.”

11 “Angus King, Retired Public School Figure,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 3, 1969: 45.

12 Mari, “George Steinbrenner’s Third Man Theme…”

13 Nieman, “American Baseball Bureau Questionnaire.”

14 Morrow, “Whattaman Nieman in Two-Homer Bow.”

15 “Latest Batting and Pitching Averages,” The Sporting News, June 30, 1948: 38.

16 “Hoag Caps Battle of Aces,” The Sporting News, September 15,1948: 36.

17 Ray Gillespie, “Trader Veeck Keeps Right on Knocking at all Doors,” The Sporting News, December 19, 1951: 20.

18 Morrow, “Whattaman Nieman in Two-Homer Bow.”

19 Nieman, “Bob’s First Press Assignment — Telling About His Own Debut.”

20 “Nieman Stopped at 17 Games,” The Sporting News, May 10, 1950: 39.

21 Neal Russo, “Hats Off…!” The Sporting News, May 14, 1952: 19.

22 Morrow, “Whattaman Nieman in Two-Homer Bow.”

23 John Cronley, “San Antonio Deal Hits Snag,” The Sporting News, August 1, 1951: 31.

24 “Mizell Shows 13 Wins, 5 Shutouts,” The Sporting News, August 15, 1951: 29.

25 “Nuxhall Celebrates with Win,” The Sporting News, August 29, 1951: 29.

26 Morrow, “Whattaman Nieman in Two-Homer Bow.”

27 Morrow, “Whattaman Nieman in Two-Homer Bow.”

28 Russo, “Hats Off…!”

29 Russo, “Hats Off…!”

30 Ray Gillespie, “Veeck Beams Over Gains; Stresses Star Young Trio,” The Sporting News, October 8, 1952: 24.

31 Gillespie, “Veeck Beams Over Gains; Stresses Star Young Trio.”

32 Robert C. Nieman, “Nieman, in Role of Newspaperman, Sees A.L. Race as Six-Club Affair,” The Sporting News, February 25, 1953: 17.

33 Ray Gillespie, “Detroit Fans Bewildered as Veeck Completes Haul of Tiger Outfield,” The Sporting News, December 10, 1952: 11.

34 “No Sox Regrets on Nieman,” The Sporting News, December 31, 1952: 19.

35 “Bob Nieman Detroit Columnist,” The Sporting News, April 15, 1953: 37.

36 Watson Spoelstra, “Tiger Tales,” The Sporting News, October 28, 1953: 20.

37 Oscar Ruhl, “From the Ruhl Book,” The Sporting News, February 10, 1954: 12.

38 Watson Spoelstra, “First Division’s for Tigers,” The Sporting News, December 9, 1953: 19.

39 Edgar Munzel, “White Sox-Tiger Deal Now Tabbed ‘Trade of Invalids,’” The Sporting News, March 23, 1955: 24.

40 Edgar Munzel, “Nieman, Dropo Add New Shine to Lane’s Medals as a Swapper,” The Sporting News, April 27, 1955: 14.

41 Watson Spoelstra, “Tiger Tales,” The Sporting News, December 15, 1954: 10.

42 Edgar Munzel, “‘Nieman, Dropo Deal Will Give White Sox Pennant,’ Says Lane,” The Sporting News, May 4, 1955: 5.

43 John C. Hoffman, “Sox Yarns,” The Sporting News, July 27, 1955: 8.

44 John C. Hoffman, “Chisox Veeps Change Some Lane Policies,” The Sporting News, January 11, 1956: 8.

45 Jesse A Linthicum, “Richards Toast of Baltimore on Wins and Swaps,” The Sporting News, June 6, 1956: 15.

46 Jesse A. Linthicum, “Kell, Nieman Give Orioles Classy Touch,” The Sporting News, June 20, 1956: 10.

47 Watson Spoelstra, “Youngsters, Hurling and Gate all Breaking Well for Hutch,” The Sporting News, May 5, 1954: 15.

48 Herb Heft, “Glasses Add Points to Averages — Nieman,” The Sporting News, April 13, 1955: 16.

49 “Sprinklers Cool Mantle Fans,” The Sporting News, June 27, 1956: 26.

50 Jim Ellis, “Paul Buoyed by Spurts of Nieman, Boyd,” The Sporting News, September 12, 1956: 10.

51 Oscar Ruhl, “Bits, Bites, Begged and Borrowed,” The Sporting News, August 15, 1956: 16.

52 Jesse A. Linthicum, “Birrer Stars for Caracas,” The Sporting News, November 21, 1956: 15.

53 Oscar K. Ruhl, “Feller Calls All Major Players to Meet,” The Sporting News, December 5, 1956: 2.

54 Jim Ellis, “Bird Seed,” The Sporting News, March 13, 1957: 32.

55 “Nieman’s Slump Attributed to Weak Right Eye Muscle,” The Sporting News, June 12, 1957: 35.

56 Jim Ellis, “Hats Off..!” The Sporting News, June 4, 1958: 19.

57 Jim Ellis, “Bird Seed,” The Sporting News, June 11, 1958: 11.

58 Jim Ellis, “Boyd’s Rise Lifts Birds’ Hopes for Top-Flight Perch,” The Sporting News, July 30, 1958: 19.

59 Oscar Kahan, “Team Under Bob Nieman,” The Sporting News, October 8, 1958: 31.

60 “Semi-Pros Surprise Nieman’s All-Stars,” The Sporting News, October 29, 1958: 25.

61 Jim Ellis, “Nieman’s Prize Poodle Hits the Jackpot with Ten Puppies,” The Sporting News, August 13, 1958: 8.

62 Bob Burnes, “Hats Off…!” The Sporting News, June 22, 1960: 21.

63 Oscar Kahan, “Nieman Sidelined by Injury,” The Sporting News, June 29, 1960: 17.

64 “‘Stan Was in Slump, That’s Why I Benched Him’ — Solly,” The Sporting News, May 2, 1964: 19.

65 Jack Herman, “Like Old Times –Stan the Man, Redhead Team Up as Roomies,” The Sporting News, April 5, 1961: 2.

66 Oscar Kahan, “Cardinals Weed Out Gaffers; Sprouts Get Big Chance to Bloom,” The Sporting News, May 17, 1961: 10.

67 Hal Lebovitz, “Tribe Tidbits,” The Sporting News, May 31, 1961: 6.

68 Jack MacDonald, “Giant Jottings,” The Sporting News, May 9, 1962: 9.

69 “Pithy Pickups,” The Sporting News, October 27, 1962: 27.

70 Al Hardman, “Bob Nieman Likes Japan in Spite of Salary Dispute,” The Sporting News, February 15, 1964: 20.

71 “Nieman Draws Suspension,” The Sporting News, August 8, 1964: 41.

72 “Nieman Will Serve as Aide to Tribe Publicist Uhas,” The Sporting News, December 12, 1964: 17.

73 “Nieman New Tribe Scout on Coast,” The Sporting News, December 3, 1966: 52.

74 Russell Schneider, “Nieman Blasts Central Scouting Proposal,” The Sporting News, August 3, 1974: 20.

75 “Nieman Named Indians Scout,” Boston Globe, November 11, 1972: 26.

76 “Giants Sell Tickets,” The Sporting News, January 10, 1976: 39.

77 Jerome Holtzman, “Pluto May Disappear,” The Sporting News, April 3, 1971: 36.

78 Bill Madden, “Yankee Scout Nieman Dies,” Daily News (New York, New York), March 12,1985: 48.

79 “Obituaries,” The Sporting News, September 23, 1967: 38.

80 Conflicting entries in the California marriage database list her maiden name as either Sigalos or Gleason.

81 “Death Notices,” Los Angeles Times, March 12,1985: C2.