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| Ernie King | |
|---|---|
| Name | Ernie King |
| Birth date | 1904-07-12 |
| Birth place | Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Death date | 1979-02-03 |
| Death place | Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States |
| Occupation | Professional baseball player |
| Years active | 1925–1938 |
| Position | Pitcher |
| Bats | Right |
| Throws | Right |
Ernie King was an American professional baseball pitcher active in the late 1920s and 1930s who played in both major and minor leagues. A right-handed starter and reliever, he appeared on rosters that intersected with franchises and personalities across the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, and numerous minor league clubs. King’s career linked him to contemporaries and events of the interwar baseball era, including matchups against stars from the St. Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Athletics, and participation in circuit play influenced by the Federal League aftermath.
King was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in the Greater Boston area during the Progressive Era, coming of age amid cultural currents connected to nearby institutions such as Harvard University, Boston University, and the sports traditions of Fenway Park. He attended a public high school in Boston where regional rivalries with students from Brookline, Massachusetts and Cambridge, Massachusetts fostered his early baseball development. During his youth he played in semi-professional circuits that included teams from New England industrial towns and summer leagues that fed talent to organizations linked with the International League and the New England League.
King signed his first professional contract with a New England minor league club in 1925 and moved through farm systems affiliated indirectly with franchises like the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. He spent seasons with clubs in the International League, American Association (1902–1997), and the Eastern League (1884–1937), pitching against prospects bound for teams such as the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Browns. King made appearances in major league spring training camps that featured managers and figures connected to the Baseball Hall of Fame era, including matchups in exhibitions with players from the Philadelphia Athletics and the Cleveland Indians. Throughout the late 1920s and early 1930s he alternated between starting roles and relief duty, facing hitters who later associated with franchises like the Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, and Pittsburgh Pirates.
A right-handed pitcher, King was known for a fastball and a late-breaking curve that drew comparisons in contemporary newspapers to pitches used by pitchers in the National League and American League of the period. Scouts from organizations including the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox noted his competitive mound presence and ability to induce ground balls against lineups featuring sluggers from the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. King recorded multiple complete games and a string of low-earned-run outings in the International League where he faced future Hall of Famers who spent time with the Philadelphia Athletics and the Cleveland Indians. His notable achievements included leading his minor league team to a divisional pennant and throwing several shutouts against affiliates of the Detroit Tigers and the Pittsburgh Pirates during the prime years of his career.
After retiring from organized play in 1938, King remained involved in baseball through coaching and scouting roles with semi-professional and collegiate programs tied to institutions like Brown University and local New England clubs that scheduled games with teams from the Yankees and the Red Sox organizations. He worked with youth leagues in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and consulted for minor league franchises in the New England League revival efforts. In the postwar period King maintained connections to baseball conventions where former players from the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Chicago Cubs frequently appeared, and he contributed to oral history projects that recorded memories of interwar baseball figures associated with the Baseball Hall of Fame region.
King lived in Pawtucket, Rhode Island after his playing days and was active in community sports programs, engaging with fans and former teammates whose careers intersected with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Athletics, and other storied franchises. His legacy persists in local historical collections and minor league archives that document players who bridged farm systems tied to franchises such as the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals. Commemorations of King have appeared at local events alongside exhibits on regional baseball history that include artifacts from the eras of the Federal League aftermath, the International League, and the early 20th-century New England baseball tradition.
Category:Baseball pitchers Category:1904 births Category:1979 deaths