King Kelly

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at5 ft 10 in · 170 lb

BornDecember 31, 1857 · Troy, NY, USA

MLB debutMay 1, 1878

Final gameSeptember 2, 1893

Seasons16 (1878–1893)

Cincinnati Reds 1878–1879; Chicago White Stockings 1880–1886; Boston Beaneaters 1887–1889; Boston Reds 1890–1891; Boston Beaneaters 1891; Cincinnati Kelly's Killers 1891; Boston Beaneaters 1892; New York Giants 1893

Percentile snapshot

1889 season — qualified batters

125

574

507

120

149

100

RBI

.294

OBP

.376

SLG

.448

OPS

.824

wRC+

122.2

OPS+

128.6

wOBA

.390

sWAR

3.2

of 101 qualified 1889 batters (min 412 PA) · 1 stat not shown: every qualified player held the same value, so a percentile there carries no information

Career, era-adjusted

wRC+

132.8

92.7

OPS+

143.7

96.8

sWAR

51.4

98.9

wRC+ measured against qualified careers (3,000+ PA), 2,078 of them; OPS+ measured against qualified careers (3,000+ PA), 2,078 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1878	60	244	237	29	67	7	1	0	27	7	7	0	.283	.303	.321	.624	103.9	104.9	.291	0.9
1879	77	353	345	78	120	20	12	2	47	8	14	0	.348	.363	.493	.855	156.6	178.0	.381	3.8
1880	84	356	344	72	100	17	9	1	60	12	22	0	.291	.315	.401	.716	129.8	139.2	.323	2.6
1881	82	369	353	84	114	27	3	2	55	16	14	0	.323	.352	.433	.786	134.1	144.1	.358	2.7
1882	84	387	377	81	115	37	4	1	55	10	27	0	.305	.323	.432	.755	128.4	139.8	.335	2.8
1883	98	444	428	92	109	28	10	3	61	16	35	0	.255	.282	.388	.669	99.3	99.5	.295	1.5
1884	108	498	452	120	160	28	5	13	95	46	24	0	.354	.414	.524	.938	166.7	193.4	.421	5.8
1885	107	484	438	124	126	24	7	9	75	46	24	0	.288	.355	.436	.791	141.1	154.5	.367	4.3
1886	118	534	451	155	175	32	11	4	79	83	33	53	.388	.483	.534	1.018	182.8	208.5	.467	7.8
1887	116	540	484	120	156	34	11	8	63	55	40	84	.322	.393	.488	.880	132.8	142.7	.400	4.3
1888	107	475	440	85	140	22	11	9	71	31	39	56	.318	.368	.480	.848	154.7	168.0	.387	5.4
1889	125	574	507	120	149	41	5	9	78	65	40	68	.294	.376	.448	.824	122.2	128.6	.390	3.2
1890	90	396	342	83	111	18	6	4	66	52	22	51	.325	.417	.447	.864	124.1	130.3	.412	2.9
1891	102	410	350	65	100	16	7	2	62	57	40	29	.286	.390	.389	.779	120.0	123.1	.385	2.8
1892	78	320	281	40	53	7	0	2	41	39	32	24	.189	.288	.235	.522	69.9	58.1	.269	0.5
1893	20	73	67	9	18	1	0	0	15	6	5	3	.269	.329	.284	.612	71.7	63.2	.305	0.1

Pitching

Season	G	W	L	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1880	1	0	0	3	0	1	1	0	3.0	0.00	1.333	3.00	2.87	120.7	—	2.6
1883	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1.0	0.00	1.000	0.00	3.25	103.6	—	1.5
1884	2	0	1	12	5	2	1	2	5.3	8.44	2.625	1.69	8.48	284.9	35.3	5.8
1887	3	1	0	17	5	14	0	1	13.0	3.46	2.385	0.00	7.32	181.0	116.9	4.3
1890	1	1	0	1	1	2	2	0	2.0	4.50	1.500	9.00	3.94	93.2	93.9	2.9
1891	3	0	1	21	9	7	0	2	15.3	5.28	1.826	0.00	5.92	159.6	70.2	2.8
1892	1	0	0	8	1	4	0	0	6.0	1.50	2.000	0.00	5.94	180.7	219.0	0.5

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

1,456

6,457

5,896

1,357

107th-most career R

1,813

398th-most career H

359

293rd-most career 2B

102

153rd-most career 3B

RBI

950

359th-most career RBI

549

418

368

97th-most career SB

.3075

135th-highest career batting average

OBP

.3677

333rd-highest career on-base percentage

SLG

.4381

OPS

.8058

444th-highest career OPS

Pitching

G (P)

SHO

SO (P)

BB allowed

ERA

4.139

WHIP

2.0365

K/9

0.79

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Honors

Hall of Fame, 1945 (Old Timers)

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.