Born 133 years ago today, Silver King was the ace of the 1888 American Association Champion St. Louis Browns, putting up insane numbers in an era when an ace pitcher would finish almost every start.

In 1888 King started 64 (47%) of the Browns’ 137 games, and completed all 64 of them, throwing a league-leading 584-2/3 innings. His record was 45-20 for the 92-43 Browns, who lost in the 10-game postseason barnstorming tour against the National League Champion New York Giants, six games to four games. King won just one of his five starts in the series, but only 9 of the 23 runs scored against him were earned so maybe he can blame it on the defense.

His 1888 season, when he was just 20 years old, was the pinnacle of King’s career; he won another 35 games in ’89 (in 53 starts), and the next year jumped to the Chicago Pirates in the upstart Players League (which lasted just one season). He pitched with decreasing effectiveness (and fewer and fewer innings) over the next several seasons in the National League with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Giants, Reds, and Senators, and was out of major-league baseball before his 30th birthday. Which was probably fine with him, because he feuded with almost every team he played on—often about money—and had a successful business in St. Louis as a contractor to fall back on.

Sources are baseball-reference.com and sabr.org.