# 1884 St. Louis Maroons season

The 1884 St. Louis Maroons baseball team finished with a 94–19 record and won the championship of the new Union Association (UA). After the season, the UA folded and the Maroons joined the National League; they were the only UA team to continue past the 1884 season.
To this day, the Maroons' .832 winning percentage hasn't been matched by a professional baseball team. However, a number of factors have often led to the Maroons' season being questioned or disregarded as a true accomplishment, including: the relatively low number of games played; the debate over the classification of the Union Association as a "major league"; and the fact that the founder and president of the Union Association was also the owner of the Maroons, and deliberately (and anti-competitively) stocked his team with most of the league's best talent. Accordingly, the 1884 St. Louis Maroons are not usually mentioned in the conversation of baseball teams with the best single-season records of all time.
This team also set the record for the best start to a season in baseball history, going 20–0 before losing 8-1 to the Boston Reds on May 24, in their 21st game of the season.
The Maroons scored 887 runs while allowing 429, for a run differential of +458, the best in major-league history, as records and statistics of the UA are recognized by Major League Baseball (MLB).
The team was back in the news in 2015, when the Golden State Warriors started the 2015–16 season with an NBA-record 24 straight wins; this surpassed the Maroons' 20–0 start, which was previously the record for the four major professional sports leagues in the United States.

## Regular 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 | George Baker | 80 | 317 | 52 | .164 | 0 |
| 1B | Joe Quinn | 103 | 429 | 116 | .270 | 0 |
| 2B | Fred Dunlap | 101 | 449 | 185 | .412 | 13 |
| SS | Milt Whitehead | 99 | 393 | 83 | .211 | 1 |
| 3B | Jack Gleason | 92 | 395 | 128 | .324 | 4 |
| OF | Orator Shafer | 106 | 467 | 168 | .360 | 2 |
| OF | Dave Rowe | 109 | 485 | 142 | .293 | 4 |
| OF | Henry Boyle | 65 | 262 | 68 | .260 | 4 |

#### Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs
| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR |
| Jack Brennan | 56 | 231 | 50 | .216 | 0 |
| Buttercup Dickerson | 46 | 211 | 77 | .365 | 0 |
| Tom Dolan | 19 | 69 | 13 | .188 | 0 |
| Tom Ryder | 8 | 28 | 7 | .250 | 0 |
| Sleeper Sullivan | 2 | 9 | 1 | .111 | 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 |
| Charlie Sweeney | 33 | 271.0 | 24 | 7 | 1.83 | 192 |
| Billy Taylor | 33 | 263.0 | 25 | 4 | 1.68 | 154 |
| Henry Boyle | 19 | 150.0 | 15 | 3 | 1.74 | 88 |
| Perry Werden | 16 | 141.1 | 12 | 1 | 1.97 | 51 |
| Charlie Hodnett | 14 | 121.0 | 12 | 2 | 2.01 | 41 |
| John Cattanach | 2 | 17.0 | 1 | 1 | 2.12 | 13 |
| Dave Rowe | 1 | 9.0 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 | 2 |
| Milt Whitehead | 1 | 8.0 | 0 | 1 | 9.00 | 2 |
| C. V. Matteson | 1 | 6.0 | 1 | 0 | 9.00 | 3 |
| Sleeper Sullivan | 1 | 6.0 | 1 | 0 | 4.50 | 3 |

#### Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
| Fred Dunlap | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 13.50 | 1 |

## Sources

* 1884 St. Louis Maroons team page at Baseball Reference