The Louisville Colonels were a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

team that also played in the American Association (AA) throughout that league's ten-year existence from 1882 until

1891 Events January–March * January 1 ** Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany. ** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence. **Germany takes formal possession of its new Africa ...

. They were known as the Louisville Eclipse from 1882 to 1884, and as the Louisville Colonels from 1885 to 1891; the latter name derived from the historic title of the Kentucky Colonel. After the AA folded in 1891, the Colonels joined 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 ...

and played through the 1899 season. "Colonels" was also the name of several minor league baseball teams that played in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana borde ...

, in the 20th century.

American Association

After spending several years as a well-known semi-pro team, the Eclipse joined the newly founded American Association in 1882. The Eclipse's backer, local distiller J. H. Pank, was named vice-president of the AA, and the team was to be run by a consortium led by W. L. Lyons. Their star player, infielder Pete Browning, who had achieved some measure of local fame, remained with the team when they ascended to major league status. The team got off to a good start, finishing in second place, their best finish for several seasons. Managing partner Lyons resigned in mid-1888, and was succeeded by team secretary

Mordecai Davidson Mordecai Hamilton Davidson (November 30, 1845 – September 6, 1940) was a professional baseball owner and manager. A Civil War veteran, he is best known as the primary owner of the Louisville Colonels of the American Association in the late 1880s ...

. The following season, the team sank to a 27–111 record and a last place finish. As a result, Davidson surrendered control of the team to the AA. The Colonels lost five straight games in two days, including a tripleheader on September 7 and a doubleheader the next day, all against the Baltimore Orioles. With the prohibition of tripleheaders in the early 1920s, this record still stands. The 1889 Colonels were the first team in major league history to lose 100 games in a single season. In 1890 the team, which had been purchased by Barney Dreyfuss, bounced back with a vengeance. The Colonels won the 1890 pennant in the AA and became the first and only team to rise from the cellar to the pennant in one season. That year the AA was considered only the third-best behind the NL and the Players' League.

National League

In 1892 the American Association dissolved, and the Colonels moved to the

and played there until 1899. In 1900 Dreyfuss acquired controlling interest of the Pittsburgh Pirates and brought 14 Colonels players with him, including future Hall of Famers Honus Wagner and Fred Clarke, marking the end of the original Colonels organization and Louisville as a Major League Baseball host city.

Notable achievements

In September 1882, Louisville pitchers threw two

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher w ...

s in the span of nine days; Tony Mullane on September 11, followed by Guy Hecker on September 19. Other Louisville pitchers who threw no-hitters were Ben Sanders on August 22, 1892, and Deacon Phillippe, a rookie, on May 25, 1899. Pete Browning hit for the cycle twice for Louisville, on August 8, 1886 and June 7, 1889.

Notable Colonels players

* Pete Browning (outfielder) * Fred Clarke (outfielder–manager) *

Harry Davis Harry Davis may refer to: Sports * Harry Davis (1900s first baseman) (1873–1947), Major League Baseball first baseman * Harry Davis (1930s first baseman) (1908–1997), played for the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Browns (1932–1937) * Harry Da ...

(first baseman–manager) * Jerry Denny (third baseman) * Jack Glasscock (shortstop) * Dummy Hoy (center fielder) * Hughie Jennings (shortstop) * Tony Mullane (pitcher) * Deacon Phillippe (pitcher) * Toad Ramsey (pitcher) * Rube Waddell (pitcher) * Honus Wagner (shortstop) * Nick Altrock (pitcher) * Jimmy Collins (third baseman)

Baseball Hall of Famers

External links