Kansas City Cowboys (Union Association)
The Kansas City Cowboys (also Unions and Kaycees) were a baseball team in the Union Association during its only season, 1884. Referred to as the "Cowboys" mostly by historians, they had no official nickname during their short life and were most frequently referred to by local press of the day as the "Unions" and by the press of other cities as the "Kaycees". They were the first professional baseball team to represent Kansas City as well as the city's first major league team.
They began play as a replacement for the Altoona Mountain City, which collapsed in May, and played out the remainder of the season. Despite a 16-63 (.203 WL percentage) finish, the franchise was one of only two (the St. Louis club being the other) in the league to make a profit. In contemporary newspaper reports, the team had Altoona's record (6-19) combined with their own and were considered to have finished last in an eight-team league. The Unions disbanded shortly after the Union Association voted to dissolve.
1884 season[]
Season standings[]
Union Association | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
St. Louis Maroons | 94 | 19 | 0.832 | — | 49–6 | 45–13 |
Cincinnati Outlaw Reds | 69 | 36 | 0.657 | 21 | 35–17 | 34–19 |
Baltimore Monumentals | 58 | 47 | 0.552 | 32 | 29–21 | 29–26 |
Boston Reds | 58 | 51 | 0.532 | 34 | 34–22 | 24–29 |
Milwaukee Brewers | 8 | 5 | 0.615 | 36 | 8–4 | 0–1 |
St. Paul Saints | 2 | 6 | 0.250 | 39½ | 0–0 | 2–6 |
Chicago Browns/Pittsburgh Stogies | 41 | 50 | 0.451 | 42 | 21–19 | 20–31 |
Altoona Mountain Citys | 6 | 19 | 0.240 | 44 | 6–12 | 0–7 |
Wilmington Quicksteps | 2 | 16 | 0.111 | 44½ | 1–6 | 1–10 |
Washington Nationals (UA) | 47 | 65 | 0.420 | 46½ | 36–27 | 11–38 |
Philadelphia Keystones | 21 | 46 | 0.313 | 50 | 14–21 | 7–25 |
Kansas City Cowboys | 16 | 63 | 0.203 | 61 | 11–23 | 5–40 |
Record vs. opponents[]
Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | ALT | BAL | BOS | CHI/PIT | CIN | KC | MIL | PHI | STL | STP | WSH | WIL | |||||
Altoona | — | 1–3 | 1–1 | 0–0 | 0–3 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–3 | 0–8 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | |||||
Baltimore | 3–1 | — | 10–5–1 | 7–5 | 4–10 | 10–2 | 1–3 | 10–2 | 1–14 | 0–0 | 11–5 | 1–0 | |||||
Boston | 1–1 | 5–10–1 | — | 4–8–1 | 5–11 | 8–4 | 2–2 | 8–3 | 8–8 | 0–0 | 12–4 | 5–0 | |||||
Chicago/Pittsburgh | 0–0 | 5–7 | 8–4–1 | — | 7–8 | 12–4 | 0–0 | 3–5 | 2–14 | 0–0 | 4–8–1 | 0–0 | |||||
Cincinnati | 3–0 | 10–4 | 11–5 | 8–7 | — | 9–1 | 0–0 | 9–0 | 4–12 | 3–0 | 10–6 | 2–1 | |||||
Kansas City | 0–0 | 2–10 | 4–8 | 4–12 | 1–9 | — | 0–0 | 0–4 | 0–11–1 | 1–1–1 | 4–8–1 | 0–0 | |||||
Milwaukee | 0–0 | 3–1 | 2–2 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | — | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 3–1 | 0–0 | |||||
Philadelphia | 3–1 | 2–10 | 3–8 | 5–3 | 0–9 | 4–0 | 0–0 | — | 0–8 | 0–0 | 4–7 | 0–0 | |||||
St. Louis | 8–0 | 14–1 | 8–8 | 14–2 | 12–4 | 11–0–1 | 0–0 | 8–0 | — | 2–1 | 13–3 | 4–0 | |||||
St. Paul | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–3 | 1–1–1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 1–2 | — | 0–0 | 0–0 | |||||
Washington | 1–3 | 5–11 | 4–12 | 8–4–1 | 6–10 | 8–4–1 | 1–3 | 7–4 | 3–13 | 0–0 | — | 4–1 | |||||
Wilmington | 0–0 | 0–1 | 0–5 | 0–0 | 1–2 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–4 | 0–0 | 1–4 | — |
Roster[]
1884 Kansas City Cowboys | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Roster | |||||||||
Pitchers
Catchers |
Infielders | Outfielders | Manager
|
Player stats[]
Batting[]
Starters by position[]
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs
Pos | Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
3B | Pat Sullivan | 31 | 114 | 22 | .193 | 0 |
OF | Barney McLaughlin | 42 | 162 | 37 | .228 | 0 |
OF | Willis Wyman | 30 | 124 | 27 | .218 | 0 |
Other batters[]
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs
Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bob Black | 38 | 146 | 36 | .247 | 1 |
Frank McLaughlin | 32 | 123 | 28 | .228 | 1 |
Peek-A-Boo Veach | 27 | 82 | 11 | .134 | 1 |
Harry Wheeler | 14 | 62 | 16 | .258 | 0 |
Alex Voss | 14 | 45 | 4 | .089 | 0 |
James Donnelly | 6 | 23 | 3 | .130 | 0 |
Matthew Porter | 3 | 12 | 1 | .083 | 0 |
Ted Sullivan | 3 | 9 | 3 | .333 | 0 |
Pitching[]
Starting pitchers[]
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ernie Hickman | 17 | 137.1 | 4 | 13 | 4.52 | 68 |
Bob Black | 16 | 123 | 4 | 9 | 3.22 | 93 |
Peek-A-Boo Veach | 12 | 104 | 3 | 9 | 2.42 | 62 |
Alex Voss | 7 | 53 | 0 | 6 | 4.25 | 17 |
Jersey Bakely | 5 | 33 | 2 | 3 | 2.45 | 13 |
Dick Blaisdell | 3 | 26 | 0 | 3 | 8.65 | 8 |
Doug Crothers | 3 | 25 | 1 | 2 | 1.80 | 11 |
Bill Hutchinson | 2 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 2.65 | 5 |
Harry Wheeler | 1 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1.13 | 6 |
Frank Foreman | 1 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 5.63 | 5 |
Pat Sullivan | 1 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 11.57 | 1 |
Other pitchers[]
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Barney McLaughlin | 7 | 48.2 | 1 | 3 | 5.36 | 14 |
Willis Wyman | 3 | 21 | 0 | 1 | 6.86 | 9 |
Frank McLaughlin | 2 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 5.40 | 3 |
References and external links[]
- 1884 Cowboys at Baseball Reference
- Defunct Major League Baseball teams
- Union Association baseball teams
- Kansas City Cowboys
- 1884 establishments in Missouri
- 1884 disestablishments in Missouri
- Baseball teams established in 1884
- Baseball teams disestablished in 1884
- Defunct baseball teams in Missouri