"Swish" Nicholson: A Biography of Wartime Baseball's Leading Slugger (review)

He was another of the baseball greats to emerge from Maryland's Eastern Shore, and while he would not achieve the enduring fame of his fellow Free Staters, such as Frank "Home Run" Baker and Jimmie Foxx, Bill "Swish" Nicholson would stand as a bona fide major league slugger through the years of World War II. In a time when baseball lost many of its marque players to the military, Nicholson was able to achieve stardom as a power-hitting out-fielder with the Chicago Cubs.

Using Nicholson's career as a guide through the years of wartime baseball, Robert A. Greenberg recounts his college development, signing with the Philadelphia Athletics, and ultimate move to Chicago in 1939 where he soon established himself as a solid major league outfielder, hitting 26 home runs with 98 RBI in 1941.

This book is replete with interesting and amusing anecdotes that most students of baseball history will recall: Roosevelt's so-called "Green Light Letter," the origin of the nickname "Swish" (most likely from fans in Brooklyn chanting "swish" as Nicholson took practice swings on reaching the plate), the Cubs' "Billy Goat Curse," and the shooting of the Phillies' Eddie Waitkus by a deranged fan, among others.

The issue of Nicholson's draft status is dealt with in some detail, and it is obvious from the accounting that it was a sensitive subject with the player, considering that millions were serving in the military during the most productive years of his career (he was judged color-blind and rejected by the U.S. Naval Academy and later classified married with children). Notwithstanding the issue of his status and the feelings it engendered with him, Nicholson advanced to stardom, albeit in a diminished talent pool.

Gathering data primarily from newspaper articles and interviews, the author provides a detailed account of Nicholson's career, which peaked with the Cubs in the mid-1940s. He played on with the Phillies from 1949 to 1953 in an ever-diminishing capacity. Fans of the era will find this an informative and entertaining book more for the aforementioned anecdotes and changes in the game occurring at the time, such as the "courtesy runner" rule, rather than the day-to-day accounts of Swish's batting feats. If there is one aspect of Nicholson and his career that does not clearly emerge from this accounting, it is the personality of Nicholson himself. While we learn of his accomplishments in detail, there is little insight into the man behind the numbers.

There is a legitimate question to be asked whether Nicholson would have achieved star status in a peacetime environment. While a valid point for argument, it is probably unfair to Nicholson, as he was playing under conditions far beyond his control. He played the hand he was dealt and played it well. It was no accident that he received "the treatment," baseball's supreme compliment, in 1944 when he was walked with the bases loaded. He was voted to the Cubs' all-time team in 1952, and in 1992, a statue was dedicated to Swish on Maryland's Eastern Shore not far from the one erected to his old pal "Double X."