1884 St. Louis Maroons season

The 1884 St. Louis Maroons baseball team finished with a 94–19 record and won the championship of the new Union Association (UA). After the season, the UA folded and the Maroons joined the National League; they were the only UA team to continue past the 1884 season.

1884 St. Louis Maroons
1884 Union Association Champions
League	Union Association
Ballpark	Union Base Ball Park
City	St. Louis, Missouri
Owner	Henry Lucas
Managers	Ted Sullivan, Fred Dunlap
1885 →

To this day, the Maroons' .832 winning percentage hasn't been matched by a professional baseball team.^[1] However, a number of factors have often led to the Maroons' season being questioned or disregarded as a true accomplishment, including: the relatively low number of games played; the debate over the classification of the Union Association as a "major league"; and the fact that the founder and president of the Union Association was also the owner of the Maroons, and deliberately (and anti-competitively) stocked his team with most of the league's best talent. Accordingly, the 1884 St. Louis Maroons are not usually mentioned in the conversation of baseball teams with the best single-season records of all time.

This team also set the record for the best start to a season in baseball history, going 20–0 before losing 8-1 to the Boston Reds on May 24, in their 21st game of the season.^[2]

The Maroons scored 887 runs while allowing 429, for a run differential of +458, the best in major-league history,^[3] as records and statistics of the UA are recognized by Major League Baseball (MLB).

The team was back in the news in 2015, when the Golden State Warriors started the 2015–16 season with an NBA-record 24 straight wins; this surpassed the Maroons' 20–0 start, which was previously the record for the four major professional sports leagues in the United States.^[4]

Regular season

Second baseman Fred Dunlap

Right fielder Orator Shafer

Pitcher Charlie Sweeney

Left fielder Henry Boyle

First baseman Joe Quinn

Season standings

• v
• t
• e

Union Association

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
St. Louis Maroons	94	19	.832	—	49‍–‍6	45‍–‍13
Cincinnati Outlaw Reds	69	36	.657	21	35‍–‍17	34‍–‍19
Baltimore Monumentals	58	47	.552	32	29‍–‍21	29‍–‍26
Boston Reds	58	51	.532	34	34‍–‍22	24‍–‍29
Milwaukee Brewers	8	4	.667	35½	8‍–‍4	0‍–‍0
St. Paul Saints	2	6	.250	39½	0‍–‍0	2‍–‍6
Chicago Browns/Pittsburgh Stogies	41	50	.451	42	21‍–‍19	20‍–‍31
Altoona Mountain Citys	6	19	.240	44	6‍–‍12	0‍–‍7
Wilmington Quicksteps	2	16	.111	44½	1‍–‍6	1‍–‍10
Washington Nationals (UA)	47	65	.420	46½	36‍–‍27	11‍–‍38
Philadelphia Keystones	21	46	.313	50	14‍–‍21	7‍–‍25
Kansas City Cowboys	16	63	.203	61	11‍–‍23	5‍–‍40

Record vs. opponents

1884 Union Association record v t e Sources:
Team	ALT	BAL	BOS	CHI/PIT	CIN	KC	MIL	PHI	STL	STP	WSH	WIL
Altoona	—	1–3	1–1	0–0	0–3	0–0	0–0	1–3	0–8	0–0	3–1	0–0
Baltimore	3–1	—	10–5–1	7–5	4–10	10–2	1–3	10–2	1–14	0–0	11–5	1–0
Boston	1–1	5–10–1	—	4–8–1	5–11	8–4	2–2	8–3	8–8	0–0	12–4	5–0
Chicago/Pittsburgh	0–0	5–7	8–4–1	—	7–8	12–4	0–0	3–5	2–14	0–0	4–8–1	0–0
Cincinnati	3–0	10–4	11–5	8–7	—	9–1	0–0	9–0	4–12	3–0	10–6	2–1
Kansas City	0–0	2–10	4–8	4–12	1–9	—	0–0	0–4	0–11–1	1–1–1	4–8–1	0–0
Milwaukee	0–0	3–1	2–2	0–0	0–0	0–0	—	0–0	0–0	0–0	3–1	0–0
Philadelphia	3–1	2–10	3–8	5–3	0–9	4–0	0–0	—	0–8	0–0	4–7	0–0
St. Louis	8–0	14–1	8–8	14–2	12–4	11–0–1	0–0	8–0	—	2–1	13–3	4–0
St. Paul	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–3	1–1–1	0–0	0–0	1–2	—	0–0	0–0
Washington	1–3	5–11	4–12	8–4–1	6–10	8–4–1	1–3	7–4	3–13	0–0	—	4–1
Wilmington	0–0	0–1	0–5	0–0	1–2	0–0	0–0	0–0	0–4	0–0	1–4	—

Roster

1884 St. Louis Maroons
Roster
Pitchers John Cattanach Charlie Hodnett C. V. Matteson William Sullivan Charlie Sweeney Billy Taylor Perry Werden		Catchers George Baker Jack Brennan Tom Dolan Infielders Fred Dunlap Jack Gleason Joe Quinn Milt Whitehead		Outfielders Henry Boyle Ed Callahan Dan Cronin Buttercup Dickerson Fred Lewis Dave Rowe Tom Ryder Orator Shafer Sleeper Sullivan		Manager Fred Dunlap Ted Sullivan

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR
C	George Baker	80	317	52	.164	0
1B	Joe Quinn	103	429	116	.270	0
2B	Fred Dunlap	101	449	185	.412	13
SS	Milt Whitehead	99	393	83	.211	1
3B	Jack Gleason	92	395	128	.324	4
OF	Orator Shafer	106	467	168	.360	2
OF	Dave Rowe	109	485	142	.293	4
OF	Henry Boyle	65	262	68	.260	4

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR
Jack Brennan	56	231	50	.216	0
Buttercup Dickerson	46	211	77	.365	0
Tom Dolan	19	69	13	.188	0
Tom Ryder	8	28	7	.250	0
Sleeper Sullivan	2	9	1	.111	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Charlie Sweeney	33	271.0	24	7	1.83	192
Billy Taylor	33	263.0	25	4	1.68	154
Henry Boyle	19	150.0	15	3	1.74	88
Perry Werden	16	141.1	12	1	1.97	51
Charlie Hodnett	14	121.0	12	2	2.01	41
John Cattanach	2	17.0	1	1	2.12	13
Dave Rowe	1	9.0	1	0	2.00	2
Milt Whitehead	1	8.0	0	1	9.00	2
C. V. Matteson	1	6.0	1	0	9.00	3
Sleeper Sullivan	1	6.0	1	0	4.50	3

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Fred Dunlap	1	0	0	1	13.50	1

Sources

• 1884 St. Louis Maroons team page at Baseball Reference

References

1. "Best Record In A Season By A Team In MLB History". StatMuse. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
2. "1884 Major League Scores, Standings, Box Scores for Saturday, May 24, 1884". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
3. "Highest Run Differential Ever". statmuse.com. August 10, 2022.
4. "Sherman: 1884 St. Louis Maroons were the last sports team to start 20-0". Society for American Baseball Research. Archived from the original on July 17, 2019. Retrieved July 17, 2019.

Preceded by League created	Union Association Championship Season 1884	Succeeded by League dissolved