Charlie Keller

Charles Ernest Keller (King Kong)

Position: Leftfielder
Bats: Left, Throws: Right
Height: 5' 10", Weight: 185 lb.

Born: September 12, 1916 in Middletown, MD
High School: Frederick HS (Frederick, MD)
School: University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
Signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1937. (All Transactions)
Debut: April 22, 1939
Teams (by GP): Yankees/Tigers 1939-1952

Final Game: September 14, 1952
Died: May 23, 1990 in Frederick, MD
Buried: Christ Church Reformed Cemetery, Middletown, MD
Relatives: Brother of Hal Keller
About biographical information

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All-Star

Standard Fielding

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	Pos	G	GS	CG	Inn	Ch	PO	A	E	DP	Fld%	RF/9	RF/G	lgFld%	lgRF9	lgRFG	Awards
1939	NYY	AL	22	OF	105	102	102		225	213	5	7	1	.969		2.08	.969		2.44	MVP-22
1939	NYY	AL	22	RF	57	56	56		115	106	4	5	0	.957		1.93	.962		2.08	MVP-22
1939	NYY	AL	22	LF	48	46	46		110	107	1	2	1	.982		2.25	.966		2.38	MVP-22
1940	NYY	AL	23	OF	136	135	134		333	317	5	11	2	.967		2.37	.970		2.40	AS
1940	NYY	AL	23	RF	71	70	70		158	151	2	5	1	.968		2.15	.970		2.09	AS
1940	NYY	AL	23	LF	65	65	64		175	166	3	6	1	.966		2.60	.963		2.33	AS
1941	NYY	AL	24	LF	137	137	131		342	328	7	7	2	.980		2.45	.975		2.31	AS,MVP-5
1941	NYY	AL	24	OF	137	137	131		342	328	7	7	2	.980		2.45	.973		2.41	AS,MVP-5
1942	NYY	AL	25	LF	152	152	152		336	321	10	5	1	.985		2.18	.974		2.27	MVP-14
1942	NYY	AL	25	OF	152	152	152		336	321	10	5	1	.985		2.18	.976		2.38	MVP-14
1943	NYY	AL	26	LF	141	141	140		348	338	8	2	0	.994		2.45	.979		2.40	AS,MVP-13
1943	NYY	AL	26	OF	141	141	140		348	338	8	2	0	.994		2.45	.977		2.47	AS,MVP-13
1945	NYY	AL	28	LF	44	44	44		114	110	4	0	0	1.000		2.59	.976		2.26
1945	NYY	AL	28	OF	44	44	44		114	110	4	0	0	1.000		2.59	.978		2.40
1946	NYY	AL	29	OF	149	149	149		335	324	4	7	0	.979		2.20	.977		2.36	AS,MVP-15
1946	NYY	AL	29	LF	146	146	146		330	319	4	7	0	.979		2.21	.974		2.24	AS,MVP-15
1946	NYY	AL	29	RF	3	3	3		5	5	0	0	0	1.000		1.67	.972		2.10	AS,MVP-15
1947	NYY	AL	30	LF	43	43	42		90	85	2	3	0	.967		2.02	.976		2.36	AS
1947	NYY	AL	30	OF	43	43	42		90	85	2	3	0	.967		2.02	.979		2.47	AS
1948	NYY	AL	31	LF	66	60	56		132	128	1	3	0	.977		1.95	.975		2.34
1948	NYY	AL	31	OF	66	60	56		130	126	1	3	0	.977		1.92	.975		2.51
1949	NYY	AL	32	OF	31	26	18		42	41	0	1	0	.976		1.32	.980		2.44
1949	NYY	AL	32	LF	27	23	15		40	39	0	1	0	.975		1.44	.982		2.36
1949	NYY	AL	32	RF	4	3	3		4	4	0	0	0	1.000		1.00	.978		2.10
1950	DET	AL	33	OF	6	4	4	43.0	10	10	0	0	0	1.000	2.09	1.67	.979	2.51	2.47
1950	DET	AL	33	RF	5	3	3	34.0	5	5	0	0	0	1.000	1.32	1.00	.976	2.12	2.08
1950	DET	AL	33	LF	1	1	1	9.0	5	5	0	0	0	1.000	5.00	5.00	.976	2.40	2.40
1951	DET	AL	34	OF	8	6	5	56.0	22	22	0	0	0	1.000	3.54	2.75	.977	2.44	2.44
1951	DET	AL	34	LF	4	3	3	29.0	9	9	0	0	0	1.000	2.79	2.25	.973	2.42	2.40
1951	DET	AL	34	RF	4	3	2	27.0	13	13	0	0	0	1.000	4.33	3.25	.978	2.07	2.05
1952	NYY	AL	35	LF	1	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0		0.00	0.00		2.70	2.30
1952	NYY	AL	35	OF	1	0	0	1.0	0	0	0	0	0		0.00	0.00		2.70	2.40
	13 Seasons			OF	1019	999	977	100.0	2327	2235	46	46	6	.980	2.88	2.24	.975	2.48	2.42
	13 Seasons			LF	875	861	840	39.0	2031	1955	40	36	5	.982	3.23	2.28	.974	2.42	2.32
	6 Seasons			RF	144	138	137	61.0	300	284	6	10	1	.967	2.66	2.01	.968	2.10	2.09
	13 Seasons			TOT	1019	999	977	100.0	2327	2235	46	46	6	.980	2.88	2.24	.975	2.48	2.42
Lg				Pos	G	GS	CG	Inn	Ch	PO	A	E	DP	Fld%	RF/9	RF/G	lgFld%	lgRF9	lgRFG	Awards

Note: Fielding stats are a combination of official records and RetroSheet records. Both are likely to have substantial errors and will not match perfectly.

View Complete Notes on Fielding Data

Leagues historically made no effort to balance team, league, and player fielding stats. Since 1990 or so, computers have made this feasible, but prior to that there are hundreds or thousands of discrepancies each year in games played (even whether a player played a position), putouts, assists, double plays and errors.

Pre-1948 SB & CS data for catchers is estimated from catcher assists, games started and opposition stolen bases.
From 1948 on SB, CS, Pickoff, & WP data for catchers and pitchers is taken from play-by-play accounts in the retrosheet files. There are several hundred games without pbp from 1948 to 1973 and for those we may not have any data.
CG & GS come from the retrosheet data and should be complete and pretty accurate from 1918 on.
Innings played (like SB and CS) come from the retrosheet play-by-play data and should be considered mostly complete from 1948 to 1973 and complete from then on.
Stats (PO,A,G, etc) for LF-CF-RF positions (since 1918) is taken from play-by-play or box score data as available.
Stats (PO,A,G,etc) for C,P,1B,2B,3B,SS,OF positions is taken from the official reported totals and may have been corrected at various times since their publication.
For detailed information on which games retrosheet is missing play-by-play from 1948 to 1973, please see their most wanted games list
For detailed information on the availability of data on this site by year, see our data coverage page

Sabermetric Fielding

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	Pos	Rtot	Rtot/yr	Rtz	Rtzhm	Rtzrd	Rdp	Rof	Rctch	Rdrs	Rdrs/yr	Rpm	Rdp	Rbnt	Rof	Rhr	RerC	RsbC	RsbP
1939	NYY	AL	22	RF
1939	NYY	AL	22	LF
1940	NYY	AL	23	RF
1940	NYY	AL	23	LF
1941	NYY	AL	24	LF
1942	NYY	AL	25	LF
1943	NYY	AL	26	LF
1945	NYY	AL	28	LF
1946	NYY	AL	29	LF
1946	NYY	AL	29	RF
1947	NYY	AL	30	LF
1948	NYY	AL	31	LF
1949	NYY	AL	32	LF
1949	NYY	AL	32	RF
1950	DET	AL	33	RF
1950	DET	AL	33	LF
1951	DET	AL	34	LF
1951	DET	AL	34	RF
1952	NYY	AL	35	LF
	13 Seasons			LF
	6 Seasons			RF
	13 Seasons			TOT
Lg				Pos	Rtot	Rtot/yr	Rtz	Rtzhm	Rtzrd	Rdp	Rof	Rctch	Rdrs	Rdrs/yr	Rpm	Rdp	Rbnt	Rof	Rhr	RerC	RsbC	RsbP

Appearances

Year	Tm	Lg	Age	G	GS	Batting	Defense	LF	RF	OF	PH
1939	NYY	AL	22	111	102	111	105	48	57	105	6
1940	NYY	AL	23	138	135	138	136	65	71	136	2
1941	NYY	AL	24	140	137	140	137	137	0	137	3
1942	NYY	AL	25	152	152	152	152	152	0	152	0
1943	NYY	AL	26	141	141	141	141	141	0	141	0
1945	NYY	AL	28	44	44	44	44	44	0	44	0
1946	NYY	AL	29	150	149	150	149	146	3	149	1
1947	NYY	AL	30	45	43	45	43	43	0	43	2
1948	NYY	AL	31	83	60	83	66	66	0	66	19
1949	NYY	AL	32	60	26	60	31	27	4	31	32
1950	DET	AL	33	50	4	50	6	1	5	6	45
1951	DET	AL	34	54	6	54	8	4	4	8	47
1952	NYY	AL	35	2	0	2	1	1	0	1	1
	13 Seasons			1170	999	1170	1019	875	144	1019	158

Appearances table is calculated solely from full RetroSheet play-by-play data available from 1973 on. A combination of RetroSheet (starting with the 1918 season) and non-RetroSheet data is used for other seasons.

Advanced Fielding -- LF*

				Errors					Assists					Single w/ Runner on 1st			Single w/ Runner on 2nd			Double w/ Runner on 1st			Flyout, <2out, Runner on 3rd			Flyout, <2out, Runner on 2nd			Baserunning Totals
Year	Tm	Lg	Age	Tot	Cch	Fld	Thr	ROE	Tot	1B	2B	3B	Hm	Opp	Held	Kill	Opp	Held	Kill	Opp	Held	Kill	Opp	Held	Kill	Opp	Held	Kill	Opp	Held	Held%	Adv	Kill	Kill%	Aother	PA	RHB%	BIP%	FBIP%	Fld	F2O%
1948	NYY	AL	31	3	0	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	14	12	0	7	0	0	5	3	0	9	3	0	8	7	0	43	25	58.1%	18	0	0.0%	0	1352	59%	80%	31%	132	52%
1949	NYY	AL	32	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	4	0	5	1	0	4	3	0	2	0	0	4	4	0	20	12	60.0%	8	0	0.0%	0	629	58%	77%	31%	67	45%
1950	DET	AL	33	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0		0	39	49%	82%	36%	7	71%
1951	DET	AL	34	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	100.0%	0	0	0.0%	0	44	52%	80%	36%	5	60%
1952	NYY	AL	35	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0		0	3	67%	100%	0%	0
	5 Seasons			4	0	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	20	17	0	12	1	0	9	6	0	11	3	0	12	11	0	64	38	59.4%	26	0	0.0%	0	2067	58%	79%	31%	211	51%
	MLB Averages																														57.3%			2.7%			62%	82%	31%		52%

Advanced Fielding -- RF*

				Errors					Assists					Single w/ Runner on 1st			Single w/ Runner on 2nd			Double w/ Runner on 1st			Flyout, <2out, Runner on 3rd			Flyout, <2out, Runner on 2nd			Baserunning Totals
Year	Tm	Lg	Age	Tot	Cch	Fld	Thr	ROE	Tot	1B	2B	3B	Hm	Opp	Held	Kill	Opp	Held	Kill	Opp	Held	Kill	Opp	Held	Kill	Opp	Held	Kill	Opp	Held	Held%	Adv	Kill	Kill%	Aother	PA	RHB%	BIP%	FBIP%	Fld	F2O%
1949	NYY	AL	32	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	0		0	84	67%	73%	37%	3	100%
1950	DET	AL	33	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	2	2	100.0%	0	0	0.0%	0	87	57%	89%	28%	6	50%
1951	DET	AL	34	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	1	0	6	1	16.7%	5	0	0.0%	0	74	61%	91%	28%	15	67%
	3 Seasons			0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	2	2	0	8	3	37.5%	5	0	0.0%	0	245	62%	84%	31%	24	67%
	MLB Averages																														43.3%			3.2%			62%	82%	31%		54%

* Many Detailed Statistics are based on play-by-play accounts accumulated by RetroSheet. These totals may be incomplete (3.6% of all plays from 1918 to 1973 are missing or have incomplete accounts, click link for year and team summary) for some players prior to 1974 and even complete seasons may not match the official totals due to errors in both the official totals and the play-by-play accounts. Pre-1954 seasons have a substantial numbers of games missing play-by-play accounts and should be viewed as essentially incomplete.

Appearances on Leader Boards, Awards, and Honors

Stats are Year-Value-Rank · Glossary

Hall of Fame 1953 BBWAA ( 0.4%) 1956 BBWAA ( 1.0%) 1958 BBWAA ( 3.4%) 1960 BBWAA ( 2.6%) 1962 BBWAA ( 0.6%) 1964 BBWAA ( 6.0%) 1968 BBWAA ( 3.9%) 1969 BBWAA ( 4.1%) 1970 BBWAA ( 2.3%) 1971 BBWAA ( 3.9%) 1972 BBWAA ( 6.1%)	All-Star Games 1940 (RF) 1941 * 1943 1946 (RF) 1947	MVP (yr lg (rk, shr)) 1939 AL (22, 2%) 1941 AL (5, 38%) 1942 AL (14, 4%) 1943 AL (13, 9%) 1946 AL (15, 5%) 0.58 Career Shares (398th)	Def. Games as LF (s.1954) s c a p y 1941 AL 137 (1st) 1942 AL 152 (1st) 1943 AL 141 (1st) 1946 AL 146 (2nd) Career 875 (78th)
Putouts as LF (s.1954) s c a p y 1941 AL 328 (1st) 1942 AL 321 (2nd) 1943 AL 338 (1st) 1946 AL 319 (2nd) Career 1,955 (53rd)	Assists as LF (s.1954) s c a p y 1942 AL 10 (5th) 1943 AL 8 (4th)	Errors Committed as LF (s.1954) s c a p y 1941 AL 7 (3rd) 1946 AL 7 (5th) Career 36 (95th)	Def. Games as OF s c a p y 1942 AL 152 (3rd) 1943 AL 141 (5th) 1946 AL 149 (3rd)
Range Factor/Game as LF (s.1954) s c a p y 1941 AL 2.45 (4th) 1943 AL 2.45 (2nd) 1946 AL 2.21 (2nd) Career 2.28 (13th)	Fielding % as LF (s.1954) s c a p y 1941 AL .980 (4th) 1942 AL .985 (2nd) 1943 AL .994 (2nd) 1946 AL .979 (3rd) Career .982 (59th)	Fielding % as OF s c a p y 1943 AL .994 (3rd)

Other Resources & Links

Error? Compare Search SABR's Baseball Index Other Links@google.com Baseball Library Baseball-Almanac.com DeadBallEra Obituary Retrosheet The Baseball Cube The Baseball Page WhatIfSports: Charlie Keller

Viewed 32,320 times through May 31, 2012.
Name and misspellings: Charles King charles charley Charlie charly Ernest Kong Keller

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