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Keokuk Westerns

Defunct American baseball team

Defunct American baseball team

FieldValue
nameKeokuk Westerns
native_nameWestern Baseball Club
leagueNational Association of Professional Base Ball Players
locationKeokuk, Iowa
ballparkPerry Park
founded1875
folded1875
record1-12
managerJoe Simmons

The Western baseball club of Keokuk, Iowa, or Keokuk Westerns in modern nomenclature, was a professional baseball 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. It was geographically the furthest west major league baseball had progressed up to that time.

Team History

Baseball in Keokuk before 1875

Baseball gained prominence in Iowa after the Civil War. Keokuk had three local baseball teams in 1867: the Pioneers, the Gate Citys, and the Athletics. The city was not always included in state-wide tournaments in the 1860s and 1870s, in part because incomplete railroads left Keokuk disconnected from some tournament sites. Despite this, it was Keokuk that managed to get the first Iowan team into a (debatably) major league, enrolling the Western baseball club in the 1875 season of the National Association.

The 1875 season

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.

The Westerns were managed by Joe Simmons and played their home games at Perry Park, which was in a field located beyond Rand Park. Their top hitter was catcher Paddy Quinn, who went 14-for-43 for a batting average of .326.

Legacy

Many players from the Keokuk team managed to sign with bigger-name teams during or after the 1875 season. Mike Golden, Joe Miller, and Paddy Quinn played for the Chicago White Stockings after Keokuk folded, and Jimmy Hallinan and Billy Barnie played for the New York Mutuals.

Ahead of the 1876 season, stronger National Association clubs in larger cities, led by the Chicago White Stockings, organized the National League on a different basis, mainly in order to exclude weaker clubs from smaller cities such as Keokuk.

References

References

  1. Stein, Jeff. (May 4, 2017). "Iowa Almanac for Thursday, May 4, 2017: "Batter Up"". Iowa Almanac.
  2. Flinn, Jessica. (December 2025). "Iowa Almanac - Professional Baseball in Keokuk". [[KCWI-TV.
  3. "1875 Keokuk Westerns Statistics". [[Baseball-Reference.com.
  4. "The Leagues". 19cbaseball.com.
  5. (April 1941). "Baseball! The story of Iowa's early innings". The Annals of Iowa.
  6. "1875 Keokuk Westerns Schedule and Scores". Baseball Reference.
  7. "Keokuk Western roster". retrosheet.org.
  8. "The History of Keokuk Baseball Web Site". keokuk.net.
  9. "Charley Jones Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More".
  10. "1875 Chicago White Stockings Statistics".
  11. "1875 New York Mutuals Statistics".
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

national-association-of-professional-base-ball-players-teams defunct-baseball-teams-in-iowa baseball-teams-disestablished-in-1875 baseball-teams-established-in-1875
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