The St. Louis Maroons were a professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

club based in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, from 1884–1886. The club, established by Henry Lucas, were the one near-major league quality entry in the

Union Association The Union Association was a league in Major League Baseball which lasted for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelve teams who were in the Association at some poi ...

, a league that lasted only one season, due in large part to the dominance of the Maroons. When the UA folded after playing just one season, the Maroons joined the National League. In 1887 the Maroons relocated to Indianapolis and became the Indianapolis Hoosiers, playing three more seasons before folding.

St. Louis Maroons

The St. Louis Maroons debuted on April 20, 1884, at the

Union Base Ball Park Union Grounds, also known as Union Base Ball Park, was a baseball grounds in St. Louis, Missouri. It was home to the St. Louis Maroons of the Union Association during the 1884 season and the Maroons entry in the National League The National Lea ...

, defeating the UA Chicago club, 7–2. Henry Lucas, the founder and president of the Union Association and owner of the Maroons, had stocked his team with most of the league's best talent. They started the season 20–0, a mark that would not be topped in major American professional sports until the

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

surpassed it 131 years later in the 2015–16 season. The Maroons went 94–19 in that season, with their closest rivals, the

Cincinnati Outlaw Reds The Cincinnati Outlaw Reds of 1884, also called the Cincinnati Unions, were a member of the short-lived Union Association. One of the league's best teams, they finished third with a record of 69-36. The team was owned by former Cincinnati Stars a ...

, finishing 21 games behind. For comparison, the Maroons' record would project to 135–27 under the modern schedule of 162 games, while Pythagorean expectation based on the Maroons' results (887 runs scored, 429 runs allowed) and a 162-game schedule would translate to a record of 132–30, but these results are of questionable merit, and serve to indicate something of the quality of the remainder of the organization, which many derided as the "Onion League". One of the Maroons' major stars was pitcher

Charlie Sweeney Charles Joseph Sweeney (April 13, 1863 – April 4, 1902) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher from 1883 through 1887. He played for the Providence Grays, St. Louis Maroons, and Cleveland Blues, and is best known for his performance in ...

, best known today as the pitcher who left

Old Hoss Radbourn Charles Gardner Radbourn (December 11, 1854 – February 5, 1897), nicknamed "Old Hoss", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for Buffalo Bisons (NL), Buffalo (1880), Provid ...

to shoulder the pitching burden alone with the

Providence Grays The Providence Grays were a Major League Baseball team based in Providence, Rhode Island who played in the National League from until . The Grays played at the Messer Street Grounds in the Olneyville neighborhood. The team won the National Leagu ...

of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

. Radbourn went on to pitch most of the rest of the Providence club's games, winning an MLB record total of 60. Sweeney won 24 with the Maroons after having already won 17 with the Grays, so he had a fair year as well. After the Union Association collapsed, the

was persuaded to bring the St. Louis Union entry into the established league, to try to provide some competition for the

St. Louis Browns The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they ...

of the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

. Unfortunately for the Maroons, the Browns were at the peak of their game, winning pennants four straight years (1885–1888). Meanwhile, the Maroons, facing much better competition in the National League, finished well off the National League pace in 1885 and 1886, not gaining anything in the latter season from new uniforms sporting large black diamonds on the chest.

Fred Dunlap Frederick C. "Sure Shot" Dunlap (May 21, 1859 – December 1, 1902) was a second baseman and manager in Major League Baseball from 1880 to 1891. He was the highest paid player in Major League Baseball from 1884 to 1889. He has also been rated b ...

hit for the cycle for the Maroons on May 24, 1886. Following the 1886 season, the team was sold to the league, which in turn sold it to

John T. Brush John Tomlinson Brush (June 15, 1845 – November 26, 1912) was an American sports executive who is primarily remembered as the principal owner of the New York Giants franchise in Major League Baseball from late in the 1902 season until his death ...

. He moved the team to

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

, where they were renamed the Hoosiers.Cash, John David. ''Before They Were Cardinals: Major League Baseball in Nineteenth-Century St. Louis''. University of Missouri Press, 2002, , , p. 107 Brush owned the stadium in Indianapolis, which had been previously used by the previous Hoosier team.

Indianapolis Hoosiers

This was the second major league team to bear the name Indianapolis Hoosiers, though they bore no relationship to the earlier team that played in . The Hoosiers three seasons in the

from to and posted records of 37–89 (8th), 50–85 (7th) and 59–75 (7th), respectively. The team played its weekday home games at Athletic Park. Due to

blue laws Blue laws, also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws and Sunday closing laws, are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world. The laws were adopted originally for religious reasons ...

, the club staged Sunday games outside the city limits, at

Bruce Grounds Bruce Grounds or Bruce Park was a baseball ground located in Broad Ripple, Indianapolis, Indiana. The ground was home to the Indianapolis Hoosiers of the American Association in 1884. It was also used for Sunday games by the Indianapolis Hoosiers of ...

in 1887 and at Indianapolis Park during 1888–89. When the team folded, Brush became part-owner of the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

member

Amos Rusie Amos Wilson Rusie (May 30, 1871 – December 6, 1942), nicknamed "The Hoosier Thunderbolt", was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball during the late 19th century. He had a 10-season career in the National League (NL), w ...

made his big league debut with the 1889 Hoosiers.

Jack Glasscock John Wesley "Jack" Glasscock (July 22, 1857 – February 24, 1947) was an American shortstop in Major League Baseball who played for several teams from 1879 to 1895. Nicknamed "Pebbly Jack", he was the top player at his position in the 1880s durin ...

hit for the cycle In baseball, hitting for the cycle is the accomplishment of one batter who hits a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game. Collecting the hits in that order is known as a "natural cycle". Cycles are rare in Major League Ba ...

for the Hoosiers on August 8, 1889.

Baseball Hall of Famers

References

St. Louis Maroons team index page
at Baseball Reference
1887-89 NL Hoosiers
at Baseball Reference {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Louis Maroons Indianapolis Hoosiers Baseball teams established in 1884 Sports clubs disestablished in 1889 Defunct Major League Baseball teams Union Association baseball teams Indianapolis Hoosiers

Maroons Maroons are descendants of African diaspora in the Americas, Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous peoples, eventually ethnogenesi ...

1884 establishments in Missouri 1889 disestablishments in Indiana Defunct baseball teams in Missouri Defunct baseball teams in Indiana Baseball teams disestablished in 1889 ja:インディアナポリス・フージャーズ

St. Louis Maroons

Indianapolis Hoosiers

Baseball Hall of Famers

See also

References