Nielsen relishes new role as UNLV baseball assistant
A baseball career that was launched at Silverado High School and blossomed at UNLV was close to bringing Eric Nielsen back home.
“I was going to play in my hometown with my family around,” he said, “and I think the chips would have been in my favor to succeed.”
After steadily working his way up the ladder in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, Nielsen was one step from landing on the Triple-A 51s’ roster. He thought he had made it.
But on a day famous for pranks, in reality the rug was pulled from underneath him. On April 1, 2009, the final day of spring training, the Blue Jays released Nielsen.
“It was not the best joke in the world,” he said. “I was caught off guard, that’s for sure.”
And when Nielsen returned home to Las Vegas, it was not as a baseball player. He worked security at a bar. He was a substitute teacher in the Clark County School District and later a full-time physical education teacher at Coronado High. He also worked in sports medicine.
The first move Nielsen made was to go back to UNLV. He earned his degree in journalism and media studies in December 2009, setting up his second career.
“I always wanted to get back into baseball in some fashion,” he said.
Nielsen, 30, got his break two weeks ago, when he was hired as a volunteer assistant on Rebels coach Tim Chambers’ staff. Nielsen will assist as a hitting and outfield coach and also serve as UNLV’s camp director.
“I have a lot to offer kids, and I really do enjoy being around the kids,” he said. “It could not have been a better fit for me. I’m very grateful for Tim giving me the opportunity.”
Nielsen, who arrived at UNLV as a walk-on and became one of the top players in program history, was a perfect fit for Chambers.
“I wanted to get a guy who played here and had a passion for it,” Chambers said. “He’s a great story. Eric willed himself to be a good player. The guy has a really smart baseball mind.
“The guys coming into the program might have been a little young when he played, but all they have to do is look in our record books to see that Eric played the game the right way and was really successful.”
Nielsen batted .402 with 16 home runs and 87 RBIs as a junior for the Rebels in 2004. He was a Louisville Slugger first team All-American and the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year.
The Blue Jays made Nielsen a 12th-round draft pick, and he won the Florida State League batting title for Double-A Dunedin in 2007. He homered in his first at-bat for Triple-A Syracuse the next season before his production declined.
“I was kind of the odd man out more times than not. I wasn’t getting any consistent playing time, and it showed in my performance,” he said. “Obviously, the ultimate goal is to get to the big leagues.
“But what I got out of it is a lot more knowledge of the game, and that’s only going to bode well for me going forward.”
Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247.