On the 17th of November 1881 Clementina Brida was born to Italian parents in the Austrian controlled area of Tyrol. Italy had gained its independence from the Austrian-Hungarian state just twenty years earlier and Tyrol was seen by many as an unredeemed part of Italy which may have made it difficult for an Italian family to live there. Instead of relocating to Italy, Clementina’s parents decided to immigrate to the United States when Clementina was still very young. It’s unknown whether they settled in Pittsburgh, Chicago, or Boston. Wherever they decided to call home Clementina was introduced to baseball and took to it like a bee to honey, honing her skills as a pitcher and third baseman. During this time her defining personality characteristics solidified. She was constantly described by those who knew her as modest, and quiet, with a serious and devoted attitude towards baseball. She was so modest that the majority of the young ball players she would coach later in her career never knew she played the game. The young Italian girl grew to the average height of five feet three inches. Perhaps as a way to Americanize, Clementina adopted the common forename and surname Maud Nelson, which was incorrectly written as Maude Neilson numerous times in papers and rosters post 1897.
In 1897 at age 15, Maud Nelson made her first professional appearance as the starting pitcher for the barnstorming Boston Bloomer Girls. Maud may have played games at one of the three South End Grounds ball parks in Boston before Fenway Park was built in 1912. The year 1897 also saw the first Boston Marathon as well as the nations first subway that ran underneath downtown Boston. It’s also possible Maud may very well have been around for the “Pullman Strike” of 1894 in Chicago.
The young Maud Nelson would have spent most of her prime years of playing baseball during baseballs silver age and the progressive era in the United States. From the level of investment she obviously put into the game over her forty plus year career span she most likely followed and was aware of some of the great players of the time such as Cy Young, which leads me to wonder if she was inspired by some of the male professional baseball stars of the time? Did her parents instill in her the impeccable ‘American Dream’ work ethic that crossed over into her training as a ball player? Were her parents supportive of her career choice? Whatever the circumstances of her upbringing and influences one thing was certain, Maud loved baseball with a quiet, cool headed, serious demeanor and unwavering focus that sustained her forty plus year career.