# 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. 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

vteUnion Association :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| St. Louis Maroons | 94 | 19 | .832 | — | 49‍–‍6 | 45‍–‍13 |
| Cincinnati Outlaw Reds | 69 | 36 | .657 | 21 | 35‍–‍17 | 34‍–‍19 |
| Baltimore Monumentals | 58 | 47 | .552 | 32 | 29‍–‍21 | 29‍–‍26 |
| Boston Reds | 58 | 51 | .532 | 34 | 34‍–‍22 | 24‍–‍29 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 8 | 4 | .667 | 35½ | 8‍–‍4 | 0‍–‍0 |
| St. Paul Saints | 2 | 6 | .250 | 39½ | 0‍–‍0 | 2‍–‍6 |
| Chicago Browns/Pittsburgh Stogies | 41 | 50 | .451 | 42 | 21‍–‍19 | 20‍–‍31 |
| Altoona Mountain Citys | 6 | 19 | .240 | 44 | 6‍–‍12 | 0‍–‍7 |
| Wilmington Quicksteps | 2 | 16 | .111 | 44½ | 1‍–‍6 | 1‍–‍10 |
| Washington Nationals (UA) | 47 | 65 | .420 | 46½ | 36‍–‍27 | 11‍–‍38 |
| Philadelphia Keystones | 21 | 46 | .313 | 50 | 14‍–‍21 | 7‍–‍25 |
| Kansas City Cowboys | 16 | 63 | .203 | 61 | 11‍–‍23 | 5‍–‍40 |

### Record vs. opponents

1884 Union Association recordvte Sources: :
| 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
## 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

* 1884 Kansas City Cowboys at Baseball Reference