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RobershawI am the great great grandson of Silver King and would be curious to know who the great grandson is that is mentioned in this post who had been to Silver King's house. My grandmother Doris (the granddaughter of Silver King) was the one who eloped (by the way, she is still alive today) and it is true that she was disowned by the family for marrying my grandfather because he was a common man, not well-to-do as was preferred. Ah, but if they only knew.....my grandfather was a perfect gentleman and they lived happily ever after until he died a few years ago.
Anyway, my grandmother was raised by Silver King for a time and she lived in the house where the oil painting and other memorabilia were. She said the oil painting was fabulous and it's the one thing in life that she wished she could have taken with her when she left the house. However, she left and never looked back, determined to make it on her own.
My grandmother tells me that Silver King was a gentleman and used to play ball with the kids in the neighborhood even though he was 50+ years old. But, he didn't like to talk about his professional career too much. I guess he was really disgusted with some of the happenings in baseball in the late 1800's so he walked away and never went back. I have seen several write ups of Silver King years after he left baseball.
I am just starting to research all of the history of baseball in the 1880's and find it fascinating. My ties to Silver King have got me started on an adventure and now I find myself hooked on learning this pre-1900 baseball stuff. I am in the process of creating a website for Silver King and I am hoping to fill the website with stories and pictures from the era including teammates, etc. If you have any photos to email or anything to contribute I would appreciate hearing everything related.
Silver King played in 1886 for the Kansas City Cowboys; 1887-1889 with the St. Louis Browns which included two World Series; 1890-1891 with Pittsburgh Pirates, 1892-1893(partial season) with the New York Giants; 1893 (partial season) with the Cincinnati Reds; 1894-1895 retired; 1896-1897 with the Washington Senators.
I know that there is a lot of history, changing of leagues, teams moving, players moving, etc. If you want to share your knowledge it would be great. Look forward to hearing from you.
Most people have seen the N172 and N173 cards of Silver King. I know that Silver King was part of the E. R. Williams game set but I haven’t seen the card yet. I have a copy of a Silver King Cabinet Card but he is wearing a suit and tie, not a uniform. It is the only picture I have seen so far of him without a baseball hat and it shows his blond hair which lead to the name Silver King. I wanted have it graded but all for corners are cut and it is trimmed on the bottom so it got rejected. Wondering if anybody knows of any other Silver King cabinet cards or similar cards or memorabilia that is out there? I would love to purchase some things but I wouldn’t mind just getting email photos so that I can start categorizing them. Again, my goal is to start my own card collection and then create a website using Silver King as the headline but to expand to who knows what…
robert shaw