Silver King (baseball)
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "Unsubst".Template:Short description Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". 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
A native of St. Louis, Koenig broke into baseball at age 18, playing for St. Joseph in the Western League.[1]
Career
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 3,190<templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" />2⁄3 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 585<templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" />2⁄3 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
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
- List of Major League Baseball career wins leaders
- List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders
- List of Major League Baseball annual ERA leaders
- List of Major League Baseball annual shutout leaders
- List of St. Louis Cardinals team records
References
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External links
- Career statistics from Script error: No such module "String".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., or Baseball Almanac
- Template:Commonscatinline
Template:1887 St. Louis Browns Template:1888 St. Louis Browns Template:San Francisco Giants Opening Day starting pitchers Template:St. Louis Cardinals Opening Day starting pitchers Template:Players' League
- Pages with script errors
- 1868 births
- 1938 deaths
- 19th-century baseball players
- 19th-century American sportsmen
- Major League Baseball pitchers
- Kansas City Cowboys (NL) players
- St. Louis Browns (AA) players
- Chicago Pirates players
- Pittsburgh Pirates players
- New York Giants (baseball) players
- Cincinnati Reds players
- Washington Senators (1891–1899) players
- St. Joseph Reds players
- Baseball players from St. Louis
- American people of German descent