Chick King
From BR Bullpen
Charles Gilbert King
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 2", Weight 190 lb.
- School University of Memphis
- Debut August 27, 1954
- Final Game May 30, 1959
- Born November 10, 1930 in Paris, TN USA
[edit] Biographical Information
Outfielder Chick King played five years (1954-59) in the majors. He was the first player to come to the big leagues out of the University of Memphis. 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 would hit .315 with 7 homers his second year out with the class B Durham Bulls.
King would have two more solid years in the minors and get his first look at major league pitching in a short stay with the 1954 Tigers, getting into 11 games and hitting .214. He would spend 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. He wound up with the Chicago Cubs for 15 games in 1958 and part of '59 and closed out his major league career with the 1959 Cardinals, finishing with a lifetime .237 batting average in 85 plate appearances.
"Chick" would finish up his minor league career with the Salt Lake City Bees in 1960, hitting .265 with 11 homers and with the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers in 1961, hitting .242 with 9 homers. This gave the outfielder eleven seasons in pro baseball (1951-61), 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", a name given to him by his older brothers as a youngster, continues to make his home in his birthplace of Paris, TN, where he has been the owner of the Metal Culvert Company and he continues to work (as of last notice) as a transportation engineer.
