Exploring the History of Kansas City Baseball

In today's episode we go way back in time and look at some baseball teams that were here long before the Kansas City Royals.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome in to this is Baseball.
My name is Brandon Johnson andtoday's episode is about the history
of baseball in Kansas City.
Obviously we all know and lovethe Kansas City Royals who have been
the Major League baseball teamsince 1969 in the city.
Well before the Royals therewere a lot of teams that came before

(00:25):
them and we know about the A'stime in Kansas City and we know about
the Kansas City Monarchs.
But there were teams wellbefore them that spent a little bit
of time in Kansas City that Iwant to get into.
So to get started on thisepisode, we're going to have to go
all the way back to 1886.

(00:48):
In 1886 there was a baseballteam in Kansas City called the Kansas
City Cowboys.
They were in the National League.
Now they only lasted oneseason and according to Baseball
Almanac, they played 121 gamesduring the regular season and they

(01:10):
finished with a record of 30and 91.
Finished seventh place in theNational League, which that is a
rough season.
That is a 248 winning percentage.
That is a worse winningpercentage than the 2024 Chicago
White Sox.
That Chicago White Sox teamlast year finished with a record

(01:32):
of 41 and 121, which is theworst statistical record in Major
League Baseball history.
But their winning percentage was.253.
Obviously they played moregames than the Kansas City Cowboys,
which gives them a chance at abetter winning percentage, but nonetheless
a 248 winning percentage at arecord of 30 and 91 for the 1886

(01:56):
Cowboys.
They were not the worst teamin the 1886 season though.
They were better than the 8thplace Washington Nationals, different
than the Washington Nationalsthat we know today.
That Nationals team wassometimes known as the Statesmen
or the Senators and they wereonly around for four years.
But let's get back to theKansas City Cowboys.

(02:18):
Let's look at some of theirlineup, some of their roster.
So here's just frombaseballreference.com 1through9,
their catcher.
This is a baseball name if Iever saw one.
Fatty Brioti.
Their first baseman, Mox McQueary.

(02:39):
Second base, Al Meyers.
Al Myers looks like one of thebetter players on the team.
He led the team an average in1886 with a.277 average.309 on base
percentage and led the team inhome runs with four.
If you're leading the teamwith four home runs throughout an
entire season, in today's gameyou probably didn't have a very good

(03:01):
year.
Their shortstop was Charlie Bassett.
He was the other player onthis roster that seemed to have a
pretty good season as well.
A 1.6 WAR which led the team.
A.260 batting average, whichis second on the team.331 on base,
which was the highest and hehad the highest OPS and it wasn't

(03:23):
even close at 7:11.
Moving down the list, thethird baseman, Jim Donnelly.
Outfield Paul Radford, DaveRowe, Jim Lilly.
And I think something that'skind of funny when I'm looking at
this is looking at their someplayers handedness like Mox McQueary,

(03:47):
the first baseman, batsunknown, throws unknown.
So there's just not a lot thatwe know about these guys.
But it makes it kind of interesting.
Like Fatty Brioti didn't knowif he was left handed or right handed
at bat, but we knew that hethrew right.
Let's look at their pitchersbecause this is a little bit crazy

(04:07):
to look at.
They had six pitchers on their roster.
Looks like maybe threestarters, three relievers.
Not 100% how it worked in1886, but let's just look at them.
So George Weidman is the firstpitcher on my list to look at and
here's an innings total thatis going to absolutely blow your

(04:29):
mind.
So according to Baseballreference, George Weidman threw 427⅔
innings in 1886 and he went 12and 36.
He had a 4, 52 ERA, gave up549 hits that year which was the

(04:55):
worst in the league and gaveup 215 earned runs and again only
gave up 11 home runs.
Like the power was just not athing back in that day and age.
112 walks.
Jim Whitney, another pitcheron the list.
393 innings.
12 and 32 was his record.

(05:17):
Pete Conway.
575 ERA, 180 innings pitched.
Silver King.
Great baseball name.
Larry McKeon, Jim Lilly.
Larry McKeon had a 10.71 ERA,only appeared in three games.

(05:39):
His WHIP was 2.4 if that's anindication of how that went for him.
Obviously three games isn't abig sample size but still looking
at some of these old stats ispretty crazy.
It would probably take astarter in today's game 3 ish years
to hit that mark of innings.
As I think today's starterspitch on average probably 150innings

(06:03):
a year.
I think they pitch five or sixinnings per start at this point.
So take them about three yearsto get there.
Now let's look at where theKansas City Cowboys played.
They played at a stadiumcalled Association Park.
It was initially known asLeague park, and it was built in
a low area that was once upon.
This is according to Wikipedia.
And it became a sink, a heatsink during the peak of summer and

(06:25):
became known as the Hole.
Continuing on, it was on ablock bounded by Lydia Avenue, 6th
street, which is now AdmiralBoulevard, John street, and Tracy
Avenue, and Independence Avenue.
It became easily known as oneof the worst parks because like I
said, it sat low and it wouldaccumulate smelly, swampy water.

(06:47):
And obviously that's adisgusting atmosphere.
Anyway, the Kansas CityCowboys only lasted that one season
in 1886, which is a hundredyears before I was born.
Geez.
Though they did leave theNational League, they were part of
the American association for acouple more years before they folded.
Now let's move on to theKansas City Blues.

(07:08):
The Blues were a minor leagueteam located in KC and they were
one of the founding members ofthe American Association.
The Blues were first anaffiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates
in 1935, and they wereaffiliates of the New York Yankees
from 1936 to 1954.
But they weren't affiliatedwith anyone for a very long time.

(07:29):
So the Blues got going in thelate 1800s as well.
In 1888 they were league champs.
Same thing in 1890, 1898,league champs, 1901, same thing.
They were managed by somebodynamed Jim Manning at that time during

(07:50):
their success.
He was a former major leaguerwho played for the Detroit Wolverines,
which is a team that existedbetween 1881 and 1888.
That Detroit Wolverines teamactually won the World Series in
1887.
They finished with a record of79, 45 and three over the St.
Louis Browns.
Unfortunately, I'm unable tofind a roster for the Kansas City

(08:14):
Blues.
It kind of gets a little fuzzythere, I guess.
There was a Kansas City Bluesfootball team at one point as well.
But let's look at where theKansas City Blues played.
They played at a place calledAssociation Park 2, and they played
there from 1903 to 1923.

(08:36):
The Kansas City Monarchsplayed there a little bit as well.
They played there from 1920 to 1923.
And this version ofassociation park sat in a block of
Prospect Avenue, East 20thStreet, Olive street and Railroad
tracks, according to Wikipedia.
And here's some outfield dimensions.
So to left field, it was 330ft straightaway.
Center field, it would havebeen four, 440ft.

(08:58):
I believe the furthest centerfield is from home plate in today's
game is in Detroit.
I think it's 412ft at Comericapark and then to right field.
It was 290.
Missouri and Kansas used toplay their border showdown games
at Association Park.
The park isn't there anymore.
It's actually been convertedto a park called Blues Park.

(09:21):
So the Kansas City Blues wouldbe a baseball team until 1954.
They stopped operating whenthe Philadelphia A's move to Kansas
City.
That's all I have for today'sepisode of this Is Baseball.
I will be doing more stufflike this and kind of looking at
the history of teams andcities and everything that went on
before what we know now.

(09:42):
Thank you for listening andI'll see you next time.