Silver King
Long-armed Silver King quit professional baseball at the age of 25 because he felt he could earn more money as a bricklayer. He came out of retirement briefly after a two-year absence, but never regained his effectiveness. Despite having bounced around among seven teams in three different leagues, King won more than 200 games in his 10-year career.
Quotes About King
"There's no telling how long I could have stayed in the game and pitched effectively had conditions been as they are now. I wish instead of making a salary limit, they would have made a player limit of 22 or 25 men as they are carrying now." — King in 1918
Played For
Kansas City Cowboys (1886)
St. Louis Browns, National League (1887-1889)
Pittsburgh Pirates (1891)
New York Giants (1892-1893)
Cincinnati Reds (1893)
Washington Senators (1896-1897)
Best Season: 1888
He went 45-21 with six shutouts in 65 starts, with a 1.64 ERA. He pitched more than 700 innings.
Factoids
When the National League instituted a cap on player salaries in 1893, Silver King quit the game in disgust.
Description
Robert L. Tiemann wrote that King was "a powerfully built man with a barrel chest, long arms, and huge hands..." In King's obituary, Edgar G. Brands desribed him as "possessing wide shoulders, a barrel chest, long, brawny arms, hands so big that they could completely surround and hide the ball and iron nervesand muscles..." By all accounts, King was a very impressive physical specimen, especially for that era. His temperament was less impressive however. It seems he was impatient and intolerant of anything but the best effort from his teammates. He was described as being "disgusted" with baseball, and reportedly never saw another game after he quit as a player.
Born
Charles Frederick King was born on January 11, 1868, in St. Louis, MO.
Died
May 21, 1938, St.Louis, MO
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
Primary Position: P
Primary Team: SL4
Major League Debut
September 28, 1886
Nine Other Players Who Debuted in 1886
Coming soon...
King had prematurely white hair, thus the "Silver" part of his baseball name. The "King" came from someone in the family. He never used the name Silver King outside of baseball, where he was known as Charley Koenig.
Related Players
Elton "Ice Box" Chamberlain was his teammate and fellow pitcher... Bill Joyce coaxed King from retirement in 1896, signing him to a contractv with Washington.
Post-Season Appearances
1887 World Series
1888 World Series
The Pitches He Threw
King was one of the hardest throwers in baseball in the 1880s and early 1890s. His best pitch was commonly called a "crossfire," which referred to the angle at which he delivered the ball. He tinkered with off-speed pitches, but was reliant almost exclusively on his fastball.
"My pitching stock consisted mainly in speed," King said. "I threw some curves, but I never knew about such things as a spitball, a fadeaway, shine ball and all those tricks. You simply had to be a Colossus or you couldn't stand the gaff."
Feats
On June 21, 1890, King hurled a no-hitter for Chicago of the Player's League, but lost the contest 1-0, due to a two-base error by shortstop Dell Darling.
Matchup Data
In his own words, King admitted: "I used to have a lot of trouble with Ed Delahanty, not to mention Dave [Dan] Brouthers, Roger O'Connor, Clemons [Jack Clements], [Sam] Thompson, [Hardy] Richardson and [Jim] O'Rourke."
Best Strength as a Player
King employed one of the more unique deliveries in baseball. Startiung at the rear of the pitcher's box (there were no pitching rubbers during most of hia career), King would step to his right and sling the ball over his shoulder, making it difficult fopr the batter to pick up the release. Due to this practice, it was very hard for opposing runners to steal off King.
Largest Weakness as a Player
Greed, I suppose.
Learn More about Silver King
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