St. Louis Maroons

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The St. Louis Maroons were a professional baseball club based in St. Louis, Missouri from 1884-1886. The club, established by Henry Lucas, were the one near-major league quality entry in the Union Association, a league that lasted only one season, due in large part to the dominance of the Maroons.

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[edit] Union Association

The St. Louis Maroons debuted on April 20, 1884 at the Union Base Ball Park, defeating the UA Chicago club, 7-2. The Maroons went 94-19 in that season, which would translate to 134 wins in a modern 162 game schedule, although such an extrapolation is of questionable merit. Their closest rivals, the Cincinnati Outlaw Reds ball club, finished 21 games behind, which would translate to 106 wins. Those figures 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, best known today as the pitcher who left Old Hoss Radbourn to shoulder the pitching burden alone with the Providence Grays of the National League. Radbourn went on to pitch most of the rest of the Providence club's games, winning a 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.

[edit] National League

After the Union Association collapsed, the National League was persuaded to bring the St. Louis Union entry into the established league, to try to provide some competition for the St. Louis Browns of the American Association. Unfortunately for the Maroons, the Browns were at the peak of their game, winning pennants four straight years (1885-1888). Meanwhile, the Maroons came back to reality after their giddy 1884 season, finishing well off the National League pace in 1885 and 1886, and then called it quits.

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