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.

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		31	114	22	.193	0
OF	Taylor Shafer	44	164	28	.171	0
OF		42	162	37	.228	0
OF		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
	38	146	36	.247	1
	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
	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
	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
	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
	3	12	1	.083	0
Joe Connors	3	11	1	.091	0
Ed Callahan	3	11	4	.364	0
	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
	17	137.1	4	13	4.52	68
	16	123.0	4	9	3.22	93
	12	104.0	3	9	2.42	62
	7	53.0	0	6	4.25	17
	5	33.0	2	3	2.45	13
	3	26.0	0	3	8.65	8
	3	25.0	1	2	1.80	11
	2	17.0	1	1	2.65	5
John Kirby	2	11.0	0	1	4.09	1
	1	8.0	0	1	1.13	6
	1	8.0	0	1	5.63	5
	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
	7	48.2	1	3	5.36	14
Henry Oberbeck	6	29.2	0	5	5.76	6
	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
	2	10.0	0	0	5.40	3

References and external links

• 1884 Kansas City Cowboys at Baseball Reference