Chick King

Charles Gilbert King

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 190 lb.
• School Memphis State University
• High School Grove High School (Paris, TN)
• Debut August 27, 1954
• Final Game May 30, 1959
• Born November 10, 1930 in Paris, TN USA
• Died July 9, 2012 in Paris, TN USA

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Biographical Information

Outfielder Charles "Chick" King played parts of five years in the majors.

Nicknamed "Chick" by his older brothers as a youngster, King went to the Memphis State University, where he also played football. He went on to become the school's first big leaguer. He was signed by the Detroit Tigers as an amateur free agent before the 1951 season, spending his initial season in the pros with the Jamestown Falcons of the Pony League, where he appeared in 124 games and hit .313. He hit .315 with 7 homers his second year out with the class B Durham Bulls.

King had two more solid years in the minors and got his first look at major league pitching in a short stay with the Tigers in 1954, getting into 11 games and hitting .214. He spent all five of his major league seasons playing the same tune... in the big leagues for a short stay... and back to the minors again - the epitome of what is sometimes referred to as a career 4A player. He wound up with the Chicago Cubs for 15 games in 1958 and part of 1959 and closed out his major league career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1959, finishing with a lifetime .237 batting average in 85 plate appearances.

"Chick" finished up his minor league career with the Salt Lake City Bees in 1960, hitting .265 with 11 homers and then with the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers in 1961, hitting .242 with 9 homers. This gave the outfielder eleven seasons in pro baseball (1951-1961), where he built a minor league batting average of .280 with 101 homers in 1,415 games.

Throughout the history of baseball, there have been more than two dozen major leaguers remembered with the first name "Chick". King is the last one (through 2008), as the name largely fell out of favor after 1940.

After baseball, "Chick" continued to make his home in his birthplace of Paris, TN, where he was the owner of the Metal Culvert Company and worked as a transportation engineer. He died in 2012 at age 81.

Sources

Baseball Players of the 1950s