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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. Their home field was called Athletic Park.

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 4 0.667 35½ 8–4 0–0
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

1884 Union Association record

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
C Kid Baldwin 50 191 37 .194 0
1B Jerry Sweeney 31 129 34 .264 0
2B Charlie Berry 29 118 29 .246 1
SS Clarence Cross 25 93 20 .215 0
3B Pat Sullivan 31 114 22 .193 0
OF Taylor Shafer 44 164 28 .171 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
Jim Cudworth 32 116 17 .147 0
Thomas Gorman 25 106 34 .321 0
Henry Oberbeck 27 90 17 .189 0
Harry Decker 23 75 10 .133 0
Lou Say 17 70 14 .200 1
Nin Alexander 19 65 9 .138 0
Harry Wheeler 14 62 16 .258 0
Joe Strauss 16 60 12 .200 0
George Strief 15 56 6 .107 0
Jerry Turbidy 13 49 11 .224 0
Charlie Bastian 11 46 9 .196 1
Alex Voss 14 45 4 .089 0
Al Dwight 12 43 10 .233 0
John Deasley 13 40 7 .175 0
Charlie Fisher 10 40 8 .200 0
Jack Gorman 8 31 4 .129 0
Jumbo Davis 7 29 6 .207 0
James Donnelly 6 23 3 .130 0
Milt Whitehead 5 22 3 .136 0
Wills 5 21 3 .143 0
Henry Luff 5 19 1 .053 0
Billy O'Brien 4 17 4 .235 0
Jim Chatterton 4 15 2 .133 0
Matthew Porter 3 12 1 .083 0
Joe Connors 3 11 1 .091 0
Ed Callahan 3 11 4 .364 0
Ted Sullivan 3 9 3 .333 0
Joe Ellick 2 8 0 .000 0
Jimmy Say 2 8 2 .250 0
John Kirby 2 7 1 .143 0
Bill Dugan 3 6 0 .000 0
Emmett Seery 1 4 2 .500 0
Charlie Cady 2 3 0 .000 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 16 123.0 4 9 3.22 93
Peek-A-Boo Veach 12 104.0 3 9 2.42 62
Alex Voss 7 53.0 0 6 4.25 17
Jersey Bakely 5 33.0 2 3 2.45 13
Dick Blaisdell 3 26.0 0 3 8.65 8
Doug Crothers 3 25.0 1 2 1.80 11
Bill Hutchison 2 17.0 1 1 2.65 5
John Kirby 2 11.0 0 1 4.09 1
Harry Wheeler 1 8.0 0 1 1.13 6
Frank Foreman 1 8.0 0 1 5.63 5
Pat Sullivan 1 7.0 0 1 11.57 1
Frank Kreeger 1 7.0 0 1 0.00 3
Jim Chatterton 1 5.0 0 1 3.60 2

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
Henry Oberbeck 6 29.2 0 5 5.76 6
Willis Wyman 3 21.0 0 1 6.86 9
Jim Cudworth 2 17.0 0 0 4.24 6
Joe Connors 2 12.0 0 1 4.50 1
Frank McLaughlin 2 10.0 0 0 5.40 3

References and external links

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