1884

The Kansas City Cowboys began play in the Union Association in June of 1884. The Cowboys served as a replacement for the Altoona Mountain City which folded earlier in the year. Kansas City’s first professional baseball team found little success during the only season of the U.A. The Cowboys posted a 3-8 record in June but fell apart in July winning just one of twenty-one games. Kansas City finished at the bottom of the league topping only the Wilmington Quicksteps. The Quicksteps played only eighteen games as a late season replacement for the Philadelphia Keystones.

The Cowboys pitching staff did not produce a single pitcher with a winning record. Starters Ernie Hickman (4/4.52/68), Bob Black (4/3.22/93), Peek-A-Boo Veach (3/2.42/62) and Alex Voss (0/4.25/17) combined for a 11-37 record in fifty starts. Reliever Barney McLaughlin (1/5.36/14) posted a 1-3 mark with a 5.36 ERA in 48.2 innings. The pitching highlight of the year came on August 26th when Dick Burns of the visiting Cincinnati Outlaw Reds tossed a no hitter against the Cowboys.

No Hitter:

Dick Burns (CIN)

vs. Kansas City Cowboys (3-1)

August 26th, 1884

The Cowboys offense was anemic at best posting a team batting average of .199 for the season. First baseman Jerry Sweeney topped the team in batting average at .264 in thirty-one games. Catcher Kid Baldwin paced the team with nineteen runs scored. Baldwin and outfielder Barney McLaughlin topped the Cowboys with thirty-seven hits apiece. The Cowboys cease to exist when the Union Association voted to dissolve after one season.