King Kelly - Later Career

Later Career

In 1891, Kelly returned to Cincinnati as the captain of a newly established American Association club there. The team was generally known as the Reds, but were also often called "Kelly's Killers" in the media due to Kelly's strong presence. The team was in seventh place when it folded in mid-August, and Kelly signed with the Boston Reds, who had moved to the Association after the Players' League folded. He spent just four games with the Reds before jumping back across town to the Beaneaters to finish out the season.

After spending the 1892 season with the Beaneaters, batting a career-worst .189, his contract was assigned to the New York Giants for 1893. He played just 20 games for the Giants, batting .269 and driving in 15 runs.

Kelly’s big league career ended after the 1893 season, having compiled 1357 runs, 69 home runs, 950 RBI, and a .308 batting average. Unreliable record-keeping practices of the era prevent an accurate estimate of how many stolen bases Kelly compiled over his career, but statistics kept during his later years indicate he regularly stole 50 or more bases in a season, including a high of 84 in 1887. He also managed to steal six bases in one game.

In 1894, Kelly signed with Albert L. Johnson, the main benefactor of the 1890 Players' League, to play for his new minor league club in Allentown, Pa. Days before signing him, Johnson had assumed control of the Allentown & Lehigh Valley Traction Company, a trolley line.

In one of the last significant comments about Kelly’s baseball career, financially, while he was still alive, George W. Floyd said the following to the Chicago Herald in March 1894:

"Kelly got the worst of it in every deal he made. When he went from the Boston players' team to the local club he helped that team to make over $100,000 . The club at that time was no better than fifth and his desertion more than anything else gave the finishing blow to the brotherhood . Mike was popular wherever he played. The trouble with him was that he had no brain as he himself was concerned. He knew enough to make money for others, but never could make anything for himself. I don’t think that his playing days are over yet, but every club in the league seems inclined to turn him down. Mike has a great many friends in every town where baseball is played and it will be bad policy on the magnates’ part to retire him from the game which he has adorned so long."

In mid-August 1894, Allentown left the Pennsylvania State League for the Eastern League and moved to Yonkers, N.Y., where Johnson also had a streetcar line. "The parting may be cruel and mercenary--but regrets--well, hardly any. So au revoir, Mike," the Allentown City Item said. Before disbanding, Kelly failed to heed Johnson’s instructions to release the players. By not releasing them, his old league was able to file a complaint with baseball's Board of Control challenging the maneuver. At a meeting in New York, the board ruled that for the next ten days, the Pennsylvania State League could claim Allentown's players. Eastern League President Pat Powers said Kelly was to blame "and President A. L. Johnson of the latter club, who was also present, voiced the same sentiments," the New York Sun said.