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

1884 Union Association Records 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	—

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	Frank 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
Frank 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