Even casual sports fans should know hitting for the cycle in baseball is a rare accomplishment.
That occurs when a batter hits a single, double, triple and a home run in the same game. Starting this week, only 305 batters in Major League Baseball history have hit for the cycle since Curry Foley first did it in 1882.
Jim King of Elkins joined select company when he hit for the cycle in 1964 with the Washington Senators. King also hit three home runs in a game in 1964, making his one of only a handful of players in the long history of Major League Baseball to hit for the cycle and hit three home runs in a game in the same season.
King played 11 years from 1955 to 1967 in the majors, mostly with the Senators, who later moved to Texas and became the Rangers. King died Feb. 23 at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville. His obituary appeared in newspapers across the country, including The Washington Post, whose older readers likely remember the big left-handed hitter who played right field for the Senators.
Closer to home, former Arkansas baseball coach Norm DeBriyn became long time friends with King after the two played together on a semi-pro team in Fayetteville in 1970. That team won the Arkansas state championship and advanced to the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan., where DeBriyn and King roomed together.
King, who was 82 when he died, made his major league debut with the Chicago Cubs in 1955 and finished his career with the Senators, Chicago White Sox, and Cleveland Indians in 1967. He hit .240 with 117 home runs and 401 RBI for his career.
"Jim kind of coiled up at the plate and he could really hit," said DeBriyn, who coached the Razorbacks for 33 years. "He was a great guy and a great story-teller. He never bragged about himself or tried to big-league you. Players from the major leagues, guys you knew about, would come up to him all the time and it was a big thrill for me to see that."
King played right field and batted fourth when he took the field for the Senators against the Boston Red Sox on May 26, 1964 at Fenway Park. The Boston lineup included Carl Yastrzemski, who played his entire 23-year career with the Red Sox and is in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y. But King stole the show that day and became a part of baseball history when he hit for the cycle.
"Dad was a good player who played on bad teams at Washington," David King said of his father, who later hit three home runs in a game against the Kansas City Athletics in 1964. "Frank Howard, a big power hitter, came along later, but the Senators were mostly an expansion that wasn't very good."
The Senators finished 62-100 in 1964 and lost both games when King hit for the cycle and slammed three home runs. Even in his best years, King never made over $40,000 and he returned to Elkins and worked during the off-season like most players of his era. Most of his time was spent with the White River Telephone and Allied Telephone companies, where he retired after 24 years.
"I was 9 years old when dad retired from baseball, so I remember him mostly with the telephone company," said David King, who has been the head football coach at Batesville for 19 years. "He was a foreman for a crew that buried cable and he came home after a long day hot and tired. But he always had time for people."
Jim King greatly influenced his son, who's made his living as a high school coach. David King wants people to remember his father as a wonderful man rather than as a star athlete who reached the pinnacle of his profession.
"I can't imagine anyone having a better childhood than myself," David King said in between long pauses and with great emotion in his voice. "Having Jim King, the baseball player, as a dad was a neat deal growing up, but he was much more than that. He and my mother, Rose, were married for 61 years and I never heard him raise his voice to her, not once. He taught me what a man is supposed to be and treated everyone with respect until the day he died."
Rick Fires can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWARick.
Sports on 04/12/2015