Wilmington Quicksteps

The Wilmington Quicksteps were an 1884 late-season replacement baseball team in the Union Association. They finished with a 2-16 record and were managed by Joe Simmons. The team played home games in Union Street Park in Wilmington, Delaware.

In 1883, the Inter-State Association of Professional Baseball Clubs was founded and local capital was invested for a franchise in Wilmington. In 1884, The Interstate Association re-organized under the name "Eastern League" (not to be confused with the double A Eastern League of today); this was one of the very first "minor leagues" and is considered a forerunner of today's AAA International League.

The Wilmington Quicksteps quickly began to dominate the league. So highly regarded was the club that major league clubs began to show up to play exhibition games; they defeated both the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Monumentals during the season. By August, the Quicksteps had already sewed up the league championship with a 50-12 record. Unfortunately, their dominance nearly destroyed fan interest in the Eastern League; even in Wilmington, attendance averaged only 400 per game.

Late into the season, Henry Lucas, the Union Association founder and owner of the St. Louis Maroons, convinced Simmons and the Quicksteps to cross over into his league when the Philadelphia Keystones folded due to lack of attendance. After winning their first game 4-3 over Washington, it was all downhill for the Quicksteps. Many Wilmington players no longer felt bound by their contracts and signed for more money with other teams in their new league; shortstop and team Captain Oyster Burns jumped to the Baltimore Monumentals for $900 a month, and outfielder Dennis Casey also jumped to Baltimore for $700 a month; each had been making about $150 a month in Wilmington. Catcher Andy Cusick went to the Philadelphia Phillies for $375 a month, and the only star player to remain in Wilmington was pitcher Ed "The Only" Nolan, who went on to beat Washington for Wilmington's second and last victory. But the Quicksteps could not survive the loss of Burns, Casey and Cusick; the team finished with a batting average of only .175 in the Union Association.

By this time, however, St. Louis had already won the pennant; as Wilmington was just being used to fill in the last month of the season, Simmons pulled his team from the field and disbanded them on September 21, 1884 after discovering that he would be unable to pay the $60 gate fee to the visiting Kansas City Cowboys as the attendance was zero. Wilmington was replaced in the Union Association by the Milwaukee Brewers.


1884 season

Season standings

Union Association W L Pct. GB Home Road
St. Louis Maroons 94 19 0.832 — 49–6 45–13
Cincinnati Outlaw Reds 69 36 0.657 21 35–17 34–19
Baltimore Monumentals 58 47 0.552 32 29–21 29–26
Boston Reds 58 51 0.532 34 34–22 24–29
Milwaukee Brewers 8 5 0.615 36 8–4 0–1
St. Paul Saints 2 6 0.250 39½ 0–0 2–6
Chicago Browns/Pittsburgh Stogies 41 50 0.451 42 21–19 20–31
Altoona Mountain City 6 19 0.240 44 6–12 0–7
Wilmington Quicksteps 2 16 0.111 44½ 1–6 1–10
Washington Nationals (UA) 47 65 0.420 46½ 36–27 11–38
Philadelphia Keystones 21 46 0.313 50 14–21 7–25
Kansas City Cowboys 16 63 0.203 61 11–23 5–40

Record vs. opponents

1884 Union Association Records

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 Wilmington Quicksteps
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders Manager

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 Lynch, TomTom Lynch 16 58 16 .276 0
2B Bastian, CharlieCharlie Bastian 17 60 12 .200 2
SS Myers, HenryHenry Myers 6 24 3 .125 0
OF Cullen, JohnJohn Cullen 9 31 6 .194 0

Other batters

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

Player G AB H Avg. HR
Cusick, AndyAndy Cusick 11 34 5 .147 0
Casey, DennisDennis Casey 2 8 2 .250 0
Burns, OysterOyster Burns 2 7 1 .143 0
Sheehan, DanDan Sheehan 2 6 1 .167 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
Murphy, JohnJohn Murphy 7 48 0 6 3.27 27
Nolan, The OnlyThe Only Nolan 5 40 1 4 2.93 52
Casey, DanDan Casey 2 18 1 1 1.00 10
Bakely, JerseyJersey Bakely 2 17 0 2 4.24 9
Tenney, FredFred Tenney 1 8 0 1 1.13 10
McElroy, JimJim McElroy 1 5 0 1 10.80 3

Relief pitchers

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

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Bastian, CharlieCharlie Bastian 1 0 0 0 3.00 2

External links

See also

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