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Silver King (baseball)

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Silver King
1888 baseball card of King
Pitcher
Born: (1868-01-11)January 11, 1868
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Died: May 21, 1938(1938-05-21) (aged 70)
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 28, 1886, for the Kansas City Cowboys
Last MLB appearance
August 19, 1897, for the Washington Senators
MLB statistics
Win–loss record203–152
Earned run average3.18
Strikeouts1,222
Teams
Career highlights and awards
  • American Association wins champion (1888)
  • American Association ERA champion (1888)
  • Player's League ERA champion (1890)

Silver King (January 11, 1868 – May 21, 1938), born Charles Frederick Koenig, was an American Major League Baseball player from 1886 through 1897. During his ten-year career, spent primarily as a pitcher, King played for the Kansas City Cowboys (1886), St. Louis Browns (1887–1889), Chicago Pirates (1890), Pittsburgh Pirates (1891), New York Giants (1892–93), Cincinnati Reds (1893), and Washington Senators (1896–97).

Newspapers in St. Louis, Missouri, gave him the nickname Silver King, referring to his prematurely gray hair and shortening his German surname.[1]

Early life

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A native of St. Louis, Koenig broke into baseball at age 18, playing for St. Joseph in the Western League.[1]

Career

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King was an unusual pitcher for his time. Gripping the ball with unusually large hands, he delivered the ball without a windup. He was also one of the first pitchers in major league history to employ a sidearm delivery. The unconventional methods worked, as he went on to pitch 3,19023 innings, winning 203 games with 1229 strikeouts and a 3.18 earned run average in 397 games. His strong fastball enabled him to become a notable strikeout artist; he finished among the league's top 10 in that category six times.

King's best season came in 1888, when he led the Browns to their fourth consecutive American Association championship. That year, King led the league with 58523 innings pitched in 66 games, 45 wins, and a 1.64 ERA. In 1890, he jumped to Chicago of the Players' League and added another ERA title while winning 30 games. On June 21, 1890, King threw a no-hitter for Chicago, the only one in the league's one-year history. (King lost 1–0, and pitched only eight innings in the loss, so this game is not officially recognized by MLB as a no-hitter.)

Personal life and death

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After baseball, King returned to St. Louis. and went to work for his father's business.[1]

He died in 1938, at age 70, and was buried at New St. Marcus Cemetery in St. Louis.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Lansche, Jerry (1991). Glory Fades Away: Nineteenth-Century World Series Rediscovered. Dallas, Texas: Taylor Publishing Company. p. 100. ISBN 0878337261.
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