Ezell King

Ezell King

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 5", Weight 200 lb.

• Born March 18, 1930

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Ezell King twice hit 20+ homers in the minors.

King hit .210/.264/.268 for the 1952 Hutchinson Elks in the Pittsburgh Pirates system. He played basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters. He then played in the Negro Leagues, including the Detroit Stars in 1955, making the 1955 East-West Game. That earned him a return ticket to the minors, split between the 1956 Phoenix Stars and Tucson Cowboys, batting .282 with 30 doubles and 16 home runs.

Ezell hit .295/.399/.476 for the 1957 Eugene Emeralds. He led the Northwest League with 14 triples, 4 ahead of Glen Phillips, and also led with 103 strikeouts. He was signed by the Boston Red Sox. With the 1958 Waterloo Hawks, he produced at a .315/.437/.566 clip with 87 walks, 24 homers, 85 runs and 80 RBI. He was 3rd in the Midwest League in average (behind | and Seymour Bonem), 9th in runs, tied for 5th with 6 triples, 2nd in homers (5 shy of Gustave Sancimino), 7th in RBI, 5th in walks, 3rd in OBP (after Johnson and Lamar Drummonds), 2nd in slugging (.006 behind Johnson) and 2nd in OPS (14 behind Johnson).

He hit .242/.338/.464 with 20 homers for the 1959 Allentown Red Sox, tying Jim Woods for 8th in the Eastern League in dingers but also leading with 165 whiffs, 22 ahead of runner-up Dennis Loudenback. He wrapped up his career with Allentown in 1960, going 4 for 32 with a double, homer, two walks and fifteen whiffs.