He was a tough, hard-nosed manager, but very fair and helpful to his young players, and they called him “The Chief” because he was part Indian/Native American…I remember doing interviews with him back in day, down at the old War Memorial Stadium, and he had some good teams back there in the mid 1990s while running the show for the Greensboro Bats…..
Tom Nieto Obituary
Tom Nieto, the baseball catcher and coach who won the 1987 World Series with the Minnesota Twins, died March 27, 2026, after a heart attack at the age of 65.
Born October 27, 1960, Nieto grew up in Artesia, California and attended Gahr High School in Cerritos, California. He played baseball at Cerritos College and Oral Roberts University before being drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1981 amateur draft.
Nieto was with the Cardinals for two seasons before moving on to the Montreal Expos in 1986 and then the Twins in 1987, winning a World Series ring that year. His final two seasons as a catcher in the major leagues were played with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1989 and 1990.
Nieto began coaching for the New York Yankees in 1995, then worked with the minor league Greensboro Bats, Tampa Yankees, and Palm Beach Cardinals in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Beginning in 2005, he worked as a catching instructor and first base coach for the New York Mets.
In 2009, Nieto returned to the minor leagues as manager of the New Britain Rock Cats and later of the Rochester Red Wings and GCL Yankees.