“What’s in a name?” Baseball Goes to Town in 1886, Revised

Authors

Mark E. Eberle, Fort Hays State UniversityFollow

Files

DOI

10.58809/YIQK7650

Date

2025

Abstract

In 1886, the St. Louis Browns of the American Association defeated the Chicago White Stockings (now the Chicago Cubs) of the National League in a postseason series, the only time an American Association club won the series played from 1884 to 1890. Also in 1886, the Missouri Pacific railroad organized the construction of a rail line in Kansas from Council Grove through Osage City to Ottawa. To commemorate the Browns’ season, the Missouri Pacific named two new stations after Browns’ players: Bushong in Lyon County and Comiskey in Morris County. Albert “Doc” Bushong was a catcher for the Browns, and Charles Comiskey was the club’s first baseman and captain (player-manager). Early reports of the towns named after baseball players contained incorrect information, but more recent publications have correctly described the events. This monograph provides additional details of the events and documents contemporary sources. The town of Comiskey no longer exists, but the small community of Bushong recently became a trailhead on the extensive Flint Hills Trail State Park, which follows the final alignment of the Missouri Pacific railroad bed. This essay was originally published in 2022 and has undergone revisions and corrections for its release in 2025 as part of the five-volume anthology Peeking through the Knothole. The open-access, digital version of this essay is available through the “Download” button on this webpage. The print-on-demand version is available through the “Buy this Book” button for volume five of the anthology (Essays on Baseball from Various Viewpoints, 1856–1940).

Keywords

Doc Bushong, Charles Comiskey, Charlie Comiskey, St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Stockings, Chicago White Sox, Bushong, Comiskey, Missouri Pacific, Lyon County, Morris County, Flint Hills Trail State Park.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Rights

© The Author(s)

Comments

For questions contact ScholarsRepository@fhsu.edu

Originally Published 2022

Revised Edition 2025

Recommended Citation

Eberle, Mark E., "“What’s in a name?” Baseball Goes to Town in 1886, Revised" (2025). Monographs. 30.
DOI: 10.58809/YIQK7650
Available at: https://scholars.fhsu.edu/all_monographs/30