Article in the Des Moines Register from June 15, 1903 about the 1888 Championship Team.The inaugural season for the Western Association called for 18 games between each club (9 at home, 9 on the road), for a total of 126 games per club. Opening Day was April 28, 1888, and the final games were scheduled for early October. With many schedule changes along the way, no two clubs ended up playing either a full schedule or the same number of games. Milwaukee played the most games (128), while of the clubs that started the season, Chicago played the fewest (117). The official standings showed Des Moines on top with a record of 74-40 (.649), while Kansas City finished second at 75-42 (.641). In actuality, Kansas City won 77 games, but two of those wins were not counted after St. Louis dropped out of the league. With an on-field record of 77-42, Kansas City finished with a .647 winning percentage. Des Moines, meanwhile, lost 41 games against 74 wins, for a winning percentage of .643, but one of the losses against St. Louis was dropped from the standings. The final official standings also included several forfeit games. Based strictly on games played on the field, Kansas City would have claimed the pennant.
After the St. Louis Whites folded, the league by-laws directed that the official results be adjusted by removing all games beyond the number played against the Whites by the team with the fewest games - Milwaukee, with only four games in this case. Des Moines took the biggest hit, with three wins (including two forfeit wins) and one loss cut from its record. Kansas City and Minneapolis each gave up two wins. St. Paul came out ahead, surrendering only one loss. At the time, the changes flipped St. Paul into first place ahead of Des Moines. Sioux City replaced St. Louis, starting with a fresh record and taking (mostly) the remaining schedule of the Whites. Each team was scheduled for 14 games (7 home, 7 away) against Sioux City, keeping the official final total at 126 games. Sioux City was scheduled for 98 games.In late August, Minneapolis folded after encountering financial issues. The franchise (and some players) were formally transferred to Davenport, along with the balance of its schedule. Because the club was considered to be transferred, no adjustment was made to the records of the other clubs. Des Moines was awarded two more forfeit victories for games that were cancelled during the transition from Minneapolis to Davenport; one of these was subsequently revoked. Davenport proved to be a complete failure, both on the field and at the gate. The team won only 4 games out of 25 total after entering the league. It folded at the start of October, skipping the last two scheduled series. The final official record for Davenport included 27 wins and 53 losses inherited from Minneapolis.
Because of the gap between the disbanding of the Whites and the first game by Sioux City (from June 24 to July 4), Omaha, Des Moines and Kansas City needed to play extra games against Sioux City (to replace those missed against St. Louis during that stretch). As a result, Sioux City was scheduled to play 7 games in 4 days at Kansas City from September 11-14, and then come home for 2 more against Kansas City. They thean had 7 games scheduled against Omaha in 4 days from September 18-21, and 8 games scheduled in 5 days against Des Moines from September 22-26, for a total of 24 games in 15 days. About half of those games were actually played, and some (but not all) of the missed games were considered forfeits in the official record. As the season wound down, Sioux City ceased playing games prior to its final two series, although it did not formally disband. The remaining games at that point were scheduled against Davenport and Chicago.
Chicago stopped playing home games in late August; its last home game was August 24, against Omaha. Even prior to that it had begun transferring home games to the other cities. They played 24 games in September and October, winning only 4 of them. Seven of those losses were to Kansas City, while five more were against Des Moines. Chicago was so weak at the end of the season that after they cancelled their next-to-final series at home against Kansas City in early October, Kansas City paid Chicago to come there for the games in an effort to catch Des Moines. Kansas won all four of those games.
In the last month of the season, Kansas City stormed ahead to come within one win of capturing the pennant. They played 33 games in September and October, winning 30 of them. During the final week of the season, Kansas City brought Chicago to Kansas City for two games on October 4 and 5, traveled to Des Moines for a scheduled game on October 6, returned to Kansas City for a double header against Chicago on October 7, and then went back to Des Moines to finish the season with two scheduled games on October 8 and 9. Des Moines finished the season with two games in Milwaukee and then the three games at home against Kansas City. Des Moines won the first two games of the series against Kansas City to clinch the pennant on the second-to-last day of the season. Kansas City won the final game of the season over Des Moines.
The St. Paul Globe published almost daily standings for the Western Association. These standing are mostly correct (with a few obvious typos), as compared to the day-by-day results compiled for the season. After St. Louis folded, the adjustment noted above was made in the standings they published. At the same time, Des Moines was credited with one additional win and Chicago was given another loss, tracing back to a game on May 6 between the two clubs in Chicago. The game was played in the middle of a series scheduled at Des Moines, but was shifted to Chicago to be the first home game for the Maroons. According to reports, more than 5000 people packed the park and the crowd flowed out onto the field. They were so close around that "the outfielders were forced to play within fifteen feet of the base lines", and balls that went into the crowd were ruled a double. The games was played as an exhibition, and it was called after seven innings with Des Moines leading 14-5. The Sporting Life reported that the game was voided, and the St. Paul Globe did not include it in the standings it published record right up until the adjustment for St. Louis dropping out, when it received the updated results from the league office. The league ruled at that time that the game was official despite the decision made by the clubs at the time.
The final standings shown above, as published by the St. Paul Globe, reflect the removal of the games that were dropped when St. Louis folded and forfeits awarded during the season for various reasons. If one looks strictly at the actual games played (including all games played against St. Louis), the standings look slighly different.
Team Games Wins Losses Ties Pct Kansas City 119 77 42 0 .647 Des Moines 118 74 41 3 .643 St. Paul 122 71 47 4 .602 Omaha 123 67 54 2 .554 Milwaukee 128 60 63 5 .488 Sioux City 73 27 46 0 .370 Chicago 117 41 73 3 .360 St. Louis 39 14 25 0 .359 Minneapolis 82 29 52 1 .358 Davenport 25 4 21 0 .160
There were just over a dozen games that were declared as forfeits. Two of these involved games in progress where the team with the lead forfeited rather than complete the game. On September 6, 1888, Chicago surrendered a 10-7 to Sioux City so they could leave to catch a train. On September 30, 1888, leading by a score of 4-3, Sioux City refused to finish the first game of a double header against St. Paul after the umpire, Broughton of St. Paul, made calls that were blatantly in favor of his club. Broughton was umpiring because the regular umpire was unavailable; under the rules of the day, the visiting club then had the right to choose an umpire. After a series of bad calls in the eighth, the crowd stormed the field, and the game was ruled a forfeit by Sioux City. Both of these games are included in the Won-Loss records above, assigned as determined by the forfeit.
Des Moines was far and away the beneficiary of the most forfeits. They gained two forfeit victories against St. Louis right as that club came crashing to an end. These wins were later removed when the records were adjusted down to four games per club against St. Louis. Then they were playing Minneapolis when that club imploded, and they were awarded two more forfeit victories. Finally, at the end of September, they were given still two more forfeits in Sioux City when Sioux City decided to not play the second games of two double headers because the crowds were not worth paying Des Moines the $100 guaranteed fee for the game. (St. Paul also got one forfeit from Sioux City for the same reason.) Des Moines benefited from being in the right place as three different clubs collapsed. Five of those forfeit wins (the four against St. Louis and Sioux, and one of the one against Minneapolis) were subsequently dropped from the record.
In late July and early August, it was evident that the Minneapolis club was in financial trouble. A deal was made to transfer the club to Davenport in early August, but the deal was scuttled by Association President Sam Morton, when he failed to act quickly enough for the Davenport investors. On August 11, 1888 Minneapolis hosted Omaha in a game at Davenport to guage the local interest in the club. Minneapolis refused to play due to wet grounds and the umpire awarded a forfeit to Omaha. (The two clubs did play at Daveport the next day, with Omaha winning 3-2.) The forfeit was later overturned because as the nominal home club, Minneapolis had the right to decide that the field was unsuitable. Within a week of those games, the Minneapolis club released its entire roster and replaced them for one game with a local amateur club called the Lyndales (on August 15), reformed as a cooperative club for two games (on August 17 and 18), and then folded for good on August 21. The club was transferred to Davenport to play out the schedule.
As noted above, Sioux City had a large number of double headers scheduled to fill in missing games against Omaha, Des Moines and Kansas City. Kansas City refused to play the second game in three straight doubles headers on September 12, 13 and 14 in Kansas City. While Sioux City claimed all three games as forfeits, these games were never recognized in the official records for the league.
On August 17, 1888, manager Will Bryan of the Sioux City club refused to play the second game of a double header against Milwaukee in Milwaukee, complaing that the umpire, Andy Cusick, had robbed the club of six previous games. Milwaukee was awarded a 9-0 forfeit. Bryan's action cost the club the game, a fine from the Western Association, and $200 in guarantees, which he failed to get the for the previous two games against Milwaukee. Bryan was suspended when the club returned to Sioux City and fired just over one week later. (Cusick had started the season as the first baseman for Milwaukee, and then was hired by the league as an umpire after being cut by the club. Newspaper reports from the game that while Cusick's umpiring was poor, they also suggested that Sioux City had also beneited more from the poor calls.)
The complete list of forfeits is as follows.
Date Home Team Road Team Reason 6-22-1888 St. Louis Des Moines St. Louis forfeited 6-23-1888 St. Louis Des Moines St. Louis forfeited; franchise disbanded 8-11-1888 Minneapolis Omaha Played @ Davenport; Minneapolis refused to play due to wet grounds 8-17-1888 Milwaukee Sioux City Game 1 - Sioux City forfeited due to dispute with umpire 8-19-1888 Minneapolis Des Moines Minneapolis forfeited 8-21-1888 Minneapolis Des Moines Minneapolis forfeited; franchise folded and transferred to Davenport 9-12-1888 Kansas City Sioux City Kansas City refused to play second game 9-13-1888 Kansas City Sioux City Kansas City refused to play second game 9-14-1888 Kansas City Sioux City Kansas City refused to play second game 9-25-1888 Sioux City Des Moines Game 2 - Sioux City refused to play; would rather keep the guarantee 9-26-1888 Sioux City Des Moines Game 2 - Sioux City refused to play; would rather keep the guarantee 9-27-1888 Sioux City St. Paul Sioux City forfeited; would rather keep the guarantee 9-6-1888 Omaha Chicago Chicago forfeited with 10-7 lead to go catch a train 9-30-1888 Sioux City St. Paul Sioux City forfeited with a 4-3 lead do to dispute with umpire