National Association

Keokuk Westerns History

By Patrick Mondout

The Westerns of Keokuk, commonly known as the Keokuk Westerns, were a very short-lived franchise in the National Association (NA). The team represented Keokuk, Iowa.

At a glance... KEOKUK WESTERNS Franchise Facts Established 1875 Disbanded 1875 Located Keokuk, Iowa Presidents John N. Irwin Vice President Frank Madden Treasurer John W. Hobbs Year by Year Results W L % 1875 1 12 .077 Affiliations National Association (1875) Postseason/Titles NA Titles (0) Nicknames Westerns of Keokuk (1875) Ballparks Perry Park (1875) Top Performances Single-Season Career

There were very few requirements to becoming a team in the National Association, which explains how a town the size of Keokuk, Iowa managed to field a major league team, albeit for only part of the 1875 season. Keokuk, which is located on the Mississippi River about 150 miles north of St. Louis, had a population "in the neighborhood of 15,000 according to a contemporaneous Chicago Tribune report. According to the 2000 Census, it now has a population of 11,427.

The team played their eight home games at Perry Park, outfield had two lakes with which fielders had to contend.

Among the 11 players to play in the 13 NA games was Charley Jones, who became one of the best hitters in the National League before being blacklisted after a contract squabble with the Boston club. He was one of the few the hit a ball over the centerfield wall at the old South End Grounds (along with Dan Brouthers). Jones is one of the few stars of baseball whose death is a mystery. Nobody knows how or when he died. It doesn't help that he had such a common name.¹

While this team is of little importance historically, failing to finish its only season with a record of 1-12 (but only four games back in the lost column!), the town was home to an historic event in baseball. The 1885 Keokuk team in the Western League featured John W. "Bud" Fowler - the first African-American in professional baseball.² This was a time just before the color line, so his career bookends with Jackie Robinson 62 years later. It should be noted that it was not a big deal at the time as there was not yet a color line and Keokuk was a minor league team. That it was Keokuk is not too surprising considering it then had a large percentage of blacks who moved out of the South following the Civil War. Bud Fowler died in 1913.

Notes:
1. The last report on Jones that I can find is in the "Baseball Notes" section of the January 14, 1900 Washington Post. A brief mention of "the outfielder of the old Cincinnati Reds" suggests that he received a political appointment from the incredibly corrupt Tammany Hall regime. 
2. Peter Morris has suggested, with a fair amount of circumstantial evidence to back him, that William Edward White, a student a Brown University who played first base for the Providence Grays for one game during the 1879 season was the first African American to play professional ball. Without the kind of DNA evidence that has shown unbiased observers that Thomas Jefferson indeed had children with one of his slaves, we will never know for sure. We do know that no one thought to mention that he was a "negro" at the time and that he himself said that he was white.

National Association sources/bibliography:
Baseball: The Early Years by Harold Seymour.
Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search For The Roots Of The Game by David Block.
Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime during the Civil War by George B. Kirsch.
Blackguards and Red Stockings by William J. Ryczek
The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870 by Marshall D. Wright.
Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball by Warren Goldstein.
When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865-1870 by William J. Ryczek

David Nemec, the tireless 19th Century Baseball researcher, has also written a novel called Early Dreams, which takes place during this era and features real-life characters such as Cap Anson, George Wright, and Henry Lucas.

General Baseball History sources/bibliography:
Baseball: A History of America's Game by Benjamin G. Rader.
Baseball: A Film By Ken Burns (PBS DVD)
The Formation, Sometimes Absorption and Mostly Inevitable Demise of 18 Professional Baseball Organizations, 1871 to Present by David Pietrusza.
The Great 19th Century Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball, 2nd Edition by David Nemec.
Early Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908 by Dean A. Sullivan.
Middle Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1900-1948 by Dean A. Sullivan.
Late Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball 1945-1972 by Dean A. Sullivan
Past Time: Baseball as History by Jules Tygiel
America's National Game: Historic Facts Concerning the Beginning, Evolution, Development and Popularity of Baseball by Albert Spalding
Total Baseball: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia by John Thorn, et al.