Boston Reds (Union Association)

The Boston Reds of 1884 were a professional baseball team that competed in the short-lived Union Association.

History

One of the last teams to join the Union Association, which operated only for the season, the Reds were owned by George Wright, whose long association with professional baseball lent sorely-needed credibility to the fledgling league.
The team was managed by Tim Murnane, who was also their regular first baseman. In their one season of existence, the Reds finished with a record of, in fourth place in the league.
Their top-hitting regular was outfielder Ed Crane, who batted.285 with 12 home runs, and their best pitcher was Dupee Shaw, who was 21–15 with an ERA of 1.77. Shaw struck out 18 St. Louis Maroons in a game on July 19.

Ballpark

The club played their home games at the Dartmouth Street Grounds, also known as the Union Athletic Grounds or Union Grounds. A diagram in The Boston Globe on April 3, 1884, around the start of construction, indicated the layout as follows: Huntington Avenue ; Boston and Albany Railroad tracks ; Dartmouth Street ; Boston and Providence Railroad tracks ; Irvington Street. Those details match the Sanborn map. The field was to be encircled by a bicycle track, as a number of ballparks were in those days, owing to the growing popularity of cycling. The property once used by the Boston Unions is now occupied by Copley Place. The field had a capacity of 4,575.