nieman was born in cincinnati. after attending kent state university, he was signed by his hometown reds as an amateur free agent in 1948. he spent three full seasons and part of a fourth in the cincinnati farm system, although he played only 38 games above the class a level. in june 1951, he was acquired by the unaffiliated oklahoma city indians from the reds' tulsa oilers farm team, and he played 109 games for the 1951 indians and batted .328. (his combined average, his tenure with tulsa included, of .324 won him the batting title of the texas league.)