Silver King's Obit

One of the few remaining hurling aces of the 80's passed away on May 19, when Charles F. (Silver King) Koenig died in St. Louis, following an operation for gallstones and appendicitis. He retired from the game before the turn of the present century and had been a brick contractor for years. Koenig was a native of St. Louis, born January 11, 1868, and had lived in the Mound City all of his life.

The son of a German couple, fittingly enough named Koenig, which is King in English, he later became a king on the mound and because of a blond thatch that resembled burnished silver, the appelation "Silver" was tacked on to the nickname by a St. Joseph, Mo., writer and eventually he became Silver King, few knowing him by any other name. He wrote his deeds high in the pitching records of his day, becoming famed as an iron man in a period when hurlers were expected to show enough stamina to pitch many days in succession, if necessary, and he won more games during his first four years in the big show than many others pitch during a like period. Yet his top salary at the zenith of his career was only $5,000 and frequently much lower.

King worked on the mound under varying conditions. When he broke in the pitching distance was 50 feet and the box consisted of two slabs, set about six feet apart. The pitcher was allowed to place one foot on the hindmost slab and take a hop, step and jump before delivering the ball. While this may have helped to get more speed, it also added to the strain attached to pitching. There was no foul strike rule and a foul was not in favor of the pitcher. Juggling of the pitching rules allowed the batter four strikes and seven balls, five balls and four strike and also six balls and three strikes, all of which made it neccessary for a hurler to make many pitches. Seldom were more than 12 players carried on a team and when a pitcher was knocked out, or not working on the mound, he was expected to play some other position.

Possessing wide shoulders, a barrel chest, long, brawny arms, hands so big that they could completely surround and hide the ball and iron nerves and muscles, Silver King brought an ideal physical make-up to the game. When he was 17 years old, King became a pitcher on a semi-pro team at Jacksonville, Ill., where his batterymate was Jack O'Connor, who also won fame as a catcher. O'Connor went with King to St. Joseph in the Western League the following year, in 1886, and later also played with St. Louis.

Kansas City, then in the National League, sought the services of King and he finished the 1886 season with that club, but had a tough time collecting the $200 he was promised for joining. Returning to St. Louis that winter, the big right-hander was approached by George Munson, a sports writer and aide to Chris von der Ahe, owner of the St. Louis Browns of the American Association, with a view to joining the Browns, under the managership of Charles A. Comiskey. Signing, he immediately made good, winning 30 and losing 12 contests and participating in 43 games, all except one being complete. The Browns won their third straight championship that season and played 15 games with the Detroit National League club for the world's title but won only five of them, King pitching in seven. This series saw the two-umpire system used for the first time.

The next season, 1888, King pitched 707 innings, 594 in the regular season, and 113 in exhibition games, and four games in the World's Series that fall with New York. In the 65 regular games in which he hurled, King yielded only 434 hits to 2,208 batters; in only one contest did the opposition score a double number in runs; he issued only 80 walks; only six home runs were made off him and he won 44 out of the 65, striking out 245, getting 13, 14, 13 and seven strike-outs in four successive games.

King continued his brilliant work in 1889, winning 30 games and losing 15 for the Browns. In 1890, with others of the team, he jumped to Chicago in the Brotherhood League, called an outlaw organization, where he won 30 and lost 18. Then began his decline, for with the weak Pittsburgh National League club in 1891, he won only 14 and lost 29. He bettered that mark in 1892 with New York, winning 22 and losing 24, but dropped back in 1893, when, with New York and Cincinnati, he won only six and lost nine.

Disgusted with the weak support given him by those teams, King quit the game and remained out in 1894 and 1895, but hearkened to the call of Scrappy Bill Joyce, manager of the Washington Nationals, and returned to action in 1896, winning ten and losing five. The following year, he gained seven verdicts against five defeats and then decided to quit the game because he felt it didn't pay. The highest salary he ever received was $5,000, with Pittsburgh. Chris von der Ahe never paid him more than $3,200 and the limit for the brightest luminary in 1897 was $2,400. So he returned to St. Louis and entered the contracting business, in which he continued until 1925.

While speed was King's chief asset, he is credited with having been the first to use the crossfire. He mixed curves and a change of pace with his speed, throwing them all with the same motion and with remarkable control, without a windup.

-The Sporting News, May 26, 1938

The Most Disgusted Lot of Ballplayers That Ever Stood Before A Bar

A bout of rage swept through Sportsman's Park today until Von der Ahe threw up his hands in desperation and fled from the scene. The association champions are the maddest, most disgusted lot of ball-players that ever stood before a bar and cursed a manager. The trouble is this: At the annual meeting of the association $1,200 of the money received from minor league clubs was set aside as a prize to be divided among the players of the team winning the association championship. The Browns won it. When the series with New York was arranged, the players allege, a contract was made, which is now in possession of Mutrie, setting forth that the players of each team should receive $200 each, win or lose. The Browns lost. After the series a benefit game was arranged which knotted the players of each team $28 each. The New Yorks received their share, but the Browns have not received the association prize money, nor the $200 for the world series, not the $28 benefit. Von der Ahe, they claim has pocketed everything in sight and told them they were "chumps." King says: "I will never pitch another ball for that fellow if I can help it. He has gouged every player in the club out of $300, for that is what is coming to us." Tom Dolan, the catcher, gave Von der Ahe a terrible roasting to his face, while Big Jack Milligan, Robinson, and O'Neill threatened to make a slaughter-house of the office on Grand Avenue.

-The Chicago Daily Tribune, November 1, 1888

Another Picture Of Silver King

In honor of his fine work so far in VEB's All-Time Sim Tournament, I'm posting this picture of Silver King. I found it originally at Bill Burgess' 19th Century Historic Photographic Archive thread at Baseball Fever. The picture shows King while he was with the Chicago Pirates of the Players League in 1890.

Update: I talked to Bill and he told me that he got this photo from Mike Shatzkin's book The Ballplayers.

What I Actually Meant To Say

I've had a long week that involved too much work, too little sleep, and probably one too many trips to the local pub. When I sat down to post yesterday, I had no clue what I was going to write about and ended up posting what seems in retrospect a relatively incoherent piece on Chippy McGarr. Oh well, not every post can be a Light In August. So let's see if I can pull it together long enough to make some sense out of all of this.

The Browns juggernaut had another successful season on the field in 1887, cruising to their third straight pennant. They were led by the outstanding pitching of Bob Caruthers, Dave Foutz, and Silver King. At the plate, Tip O'Neil had his best season, winning the triple crown and leading the AA in just about every major offensive category. Caruthers and Foutz, who played 61 and 65 games in the field respectively, were the second and third best hitters on the team.

While the Browns cruised to the pennant, their on-field success did not translate into financial success for Chris Von der Ahe. With the loss of the Pittsburgh club to the National League after the 1886 season, attendance (and revenue) was down across the AA in 1887. The lack of a competitive pennant race also had a depressing effect on attendance in St. Louis. The profitable Sunday games were threatened due to the activities of Sabbatarians who controlled the State Legislature in Missouri. The World Series versus Detroit did not generate the revenues anticipated. And as revenue was declining, Von der Ahe's expenses, in the form of player salaries, were increasing. While the Browns were certainly still a profitable operation, Von der Ahe, who relied on his baseball profits to fund his other business interests, was feeling the squeeze.

As a result of this downturn in his economic situation, Von der Ahe explored numerous options. Speculation was ripe that the Browns would follow the Alleganhys into the League (in exchange for a $25,000 bonus). Other rumours making the rounds in 1887 were that Von der Ahe would sell the Browns to Joseph Pulitzer for $100,000, move the club to New York, or buy a controlling interest in the Philadelphia Association club and transfer some of the abundant talent on the Browns to his new team in order to make the AA a more competitive venture.

While Von der Ahe certainly explored all of these options, in the end rather than take any radical steps he simply chose to cut expenses and raise revenue the "old fashioned" way-by selling his players. According to Jon David Cash, Von der Ahe "traveled to the East and traded away the rights to five valuable players from his championship team. For a total of $18,750, he sold to the Brooklyn Trolley-Dodgers the services of Albert 'Doc' Bushong and the two men who had served as a pitcher-right fielder tandem for the Browns, Dave Foutz and Bob Caruthers. In Philadelphia, Von der Ahe arranged another transaction, sending shortstop Bill Gleason and center fielder Curt Welch to the Athletics for catcher John 'Jocko' Milligan, shortstop James 'Chippy' McGarr, center fielder Fred Mann, and an additional eight thousand dollars." These transactions not only helped to address Von der Ahe's financial situation but it also strengthened Philadelphia and Brooklyn, making for a (theoretically) more competitive league.

As to Chippy McGarr and Lou Sockalexis, McGarr was born, raised, and lived in Worchester, Massachusetts, home of the College of Holy Cross. It seems that in the offseasons while McGarr was playing with Cleveland, he helped coach the Holy Cross baseball team. Sockalexis was the star athlete at Holy Cross and McGarr, recognizing his talent, pressed Cleveland manager Patsy Tebeau to sign Sockalexis. Tebeau had Jesse Burkett, another Cleveland player and Worchester native, confirm McGarr's scouting report. After Burkett also told Tebeau to sign Sockalexis, Tebeau spent almost a year trying to sign the player to a contract. After a complicated courtship that involved Sockalexis disappearing for a time and then enrolling at Notre Dame, Cleveland finally signed Sockalexis for the 1897 season.

Egerton R. Williams Popular Indoor Base Ball Game

The Egerton R. Williams Popular Indoor Base Ball Game was a card game that was patented in 1886 and copyrighted in 1889. A "parlor game" put out by the Hatch Litho Co., it consisted of 55 cards, 19 of which had pictures of popular ballplayers. The game also had 18 playing pieces, tan and red circular markers, that most likely were used to represent the players in the field. The game also came with an instructional booklet and a card box.

The cards had rounded corners and a greentone back. Those with images of players contained head-only portraits of two players. Players represented on the cards included Dan Brouthers, Arlie Latham, Charlie Buffington, Bob Caruthers, Hick Carpenter, Cliff Carroll, Charlie Comiskey, Roger Conner, Dave Foutz, Pud Glavin, Jack Glasscock, Silver King, and Curt Welch.

A complete game set is very rare. In 2005, one sold for $31,200. A picture of a complete set can be found at Cycleback’s Online Museum of Early Baseball Memorabilia. Just click the link and scroll about half way down the page.

The individual cards are less rare and are valued at around $300, depending on the quality of the card. In 2006, the Cap Anson/Buck Ewing card was sold at an auction for $2,200.

There seems to have been several of these kind of baseball themed card/parlor games released in the 1880's. Base Ball-A Professional and Social Game of Cards, Game of Base Ball, and Lawson's Base Ball were all released around the same time as the E.R. Williams game. A great source for information on these games is Baseball Games, a Yahoo egroup.

Tom Dolan

"Thomas J. Dolan, at one time one of the very best known catchers in the National League, now drives a fuel wagon for the St. Louis Fire Department.

Dolan learned to play ball with the old St. Louis 'Reds' and he was graduated from there to the Buffalo National League team, where he handled the terrific delivery of Jimmy Galvin.

Ted Sullivan brought Dolan back to St. Louis in 1883 to play with the St. Louis Browns and he left the latter team in the middle of the playing season of 1884 to play with the St. Louis Unions.

On the Browns, Dolan caught the speedy pitching of George McGinnis, Silver King, Elton Chamberlain and Tony Mullane and for the Unions he caught Boyle and Healy.

Before then Dolan faced the best League pitchers and had won a reputation of being one of the best and most reliable receivers in America."

-From The National Game

A couple of quick notes:

• I've yet to find a baseball player or person that Al Spink didn't just love and praise to high heaven. But I'm still looking and will be highly amused when I find the player that Al Spink didn't like.
  
• Happy 87th birthday to Stan Musial, the one and only. Baseball's perfect warrior, baseball's perfect knight.


• I read in the paper today that there is a global shortage of hops. This is nothing but bad. Combine this with a poor global barley harvest and the price of beer is going to go through the roof. These are dark days indeed.


• Things are probably going to be a little slow around TGOG the next day or two with the holiday and all that. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and a perfect time to reflect on all the things that God has given us-plus there's lots to eat and football on tv. The only thing that would make Thanksgiving better is if we held it in early October and we had a baseball playoff tripleheader. But I'm thankful for what I have.

October 16th In 19th Century St. Louis Baseball History

On this day in 1988, the 10-game World Series opens in New York with the Giants and Tim Keefe edging the Browns and Silver King 2-1. Each hurler allows only 3 hits.

-from Baseball Library

It sounds like the kind of game I would enjoy (except for the final outcome of course). The Browns and Giants actually played 11 games in the series. The Giants jumped to a 5-1 lead in games when the series shifted to St. Louis and clinched the series championship 6 games to 2. Even with the championship decided, Von der Ahe, for obvious financial reasons, insisted that all of the games in the series be played. With the Browns beating a now disinterested Giants club in three straight games, the New York club's final margin of victory in the World Series ended up at 6-5.

The picture above is a team photo of the 1888 Browns.

October 7th In 19th Century St. Louis Baseball History

On this day in 1888, Silver King notches his 45th win of the season‚ 10 more than any other pitcher will get this year. The 20-year-old righthander will also finish leading the ML in games pitched (66)‚ innings (586)‚ complete games (64)‚ and ERA (1.64).

-from Baseball Library

Silver King

Since I already posted pictures of Caruthers and Foutz, I might as well do Silver King. When the subject of the greatest pitching staff of all time comes up, the St. Louis Browns of 1885-1888 have to be in the discussion. 1887 was the only year when Caruthers, Foutz, and King were all on the team together and each won 25 or more games. Tough to do better then that.

The card is from the 1887-1890 Old Judge series.