The Western baseball club of
Keokuk, Iowa
Keokuk is a city in and a county seat of Lee County, Iowa, United States, along with Fort Madison. It is Iowa's southernmost city. The population was 9,900 at the time of the 2020 census. The city is named after the Sauk chief Keokuk, who is ...
, or Keokuk Westerns in modern nomenclature, was 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 t ...
team in the
National Association in 1875, the last season of that first professional league.
It is considered a major league team by those who count the
NA as a major league
The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), often known simply as the National Association (NA), was the first fully- professional sports league in baseball. The NA was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 se ...
.
It was geographically the farthest west that major league baseball had progressed up to that time.
In 1875, the NA entry fee was $20 for one championship season. The Westerns won one of 13 games (1–12 record) before going out of business.
[ On June 14, 1875, the Western club played their last game and dropped out of the league two days later.] For 1876, stronger clubs in bigger cities, led by the Chicago White Stockings, organized 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 ...
on a different basis, chiefly in order to exclude weaker clubs from smaller cities such as Keokuk.[
The Westerns were managed by Joe Simmons and played their home games at Perry Park, which was located in a field located beyond Rand Park.] Their top hitter was catcher
Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...
Paddy Quinn, who went 14-for-43 for a batting average
Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic.
Cricket
In cricket, a player's batting average is ...
of .326.
See also
* 1875 Keokuk Westerns season
References
External links
Keokuk Westerns Index
Defunct National Association baseball teams
Defunct baseball teams in Iowa
Baseball teams disestablished in 1875
Baseball teams established in 1875
{{Iowa-baseball-team-stub