What do you do when you're a young real-estate millionaire who loves baseball and want to own a team, but can't get one in an established major league? You start your own league, of course. And that's just was Sam Malvern did in 1884. The St. Louis-based tycoon was shut out when A.J. Crenshaw and co. created the American Association, and the National League had no interest in a St. Louis outlet, so Malvern found seven other wealthy "sportsmen" and created the Union Association to challenge the status quo.

The UA would field clubs in eight cities, directly competing with the AA in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Washington and with the National League in Chicago and Boston and create a new outpost in tiny Altoona, PA - somewhat within the territory of the AA's Pittsburgh club. The reason the UA was competing with the AA is Washington is that the Association decided - with pressure from NL president Alexander Taylor, to expand to twelve clubs, adding teams in Washington, Brooklyn, Indianapolis and Toledo. With the NL keeping the same lineup as it fielded in 1883, the '84 season would feature a crowded landscape of 28 clubs competing in 19 cities. None of the three leagues would make it into 1885 with the same lineup after a season of carnage.

The Union Association was a disaster in general. The eight-club circuit only saw five clubs (St. Louis, Washington, Baltimore, Boston and Cincinnati) complete their schedule. The Chicago team played some games in Pittsburgh before folding up and being replaced by St. Paul, The Philadelphia club became Wilmington in August and then Milwaukee in September and Altoona disappeared in June, replaced by Kansas City. So 13 clubs eventually were listed in the UA's standings. The league itself did feature some major league-quality players with a handful of NL/AA contract jumpers (Malvern was anti-reserve clause) in the ranks and it did discover some quality ballplayers on its own, but in general the level of play was far below that of the NL and AA.

The general rise in the cost of player salaries had dire effects on several clubs in the established leagues. Cleveland in the NL went bankrupt and would have folded except Taylor (with some help from Jack Manning) fed cash into the club to keep it running. In the Association, Columbus was struggling and of the newcomers, Washington was forced to move to Richmond in August and Toledo and Indianapolis also struggled financially with only Brooklyn looking like a viable addition.