The summer of 1871 saw the formation of the first professional baseball organization - the National Association, a loose affiliation of professional clubs that arranged 'championship games' amongst each other, with the home team paying the visiting club based on the gate. The National Association started in 1871 with 9 clubs, bounced between 8 and 11 clubs for the next few years, and had 13 clubs in its final year in 1875. There were no set schedules. Each season teams played differing numbers of championship games with differing combinations of opponents, and often clubs did not compete over the full season.The Nationl League was founded in 1876 by the strongest clubs from the National Association. It differend from the National Association in that member clubs committed to playing a full (equal) schedule against the other clubs. The first season (1876) featured 8 clubs, and the number of clubs and the exact teams continued to fluctuate over the next few seasons as clubs came and went for various reasons. Despite this instability, by the end of the 1870s the National League was the premiere league, with the best players in the country. It was Major League Baseball.
In 1882, the American Association formed to challenge the National League, vying for the same players and placing some clubs in the same cities. The American Association differentiated itself from the National League in three ways: it allowed games on Sundays, it charged $0.25 for admission instead of $0.50, and it sold beer at games. After one season of direct competition, the two leagues, along with the Northwestern League, signed the first National Agreement, in which they agreed to respect the players and territorial rights of the member clubs. Throughout the 1880s, leagues would petition to be a part of this agreement to prevent other clubs from poaching their players. This agreement was the first effort by teams to curtail the free movement of players. Once a club in a league under the agreement reserved a player, no other club could sign that player. Players who refused to re-sign with the club that reserved them could be blacklisted. The Reserve Clause ruled baseball for nearly 100 years, before Free Agency came along.
The first challenge to the National Agreement came just one season later. In the summer of 1883, Henry Lucas, from a wealthy St. Louis family, wanted a major league club. As he was unable to secure a club in the existing leagues (the National League or the American Association), he set out to form a new league to compete with them. The Union Association of 1884 directly attacked the reserve clause of the National Agreement, going after players from the existing major leagues under the assumption that they would gladly sign with a league that would not reserve them. Lucas' club, the St. Louis Maroons, easily was the best club in the league, winning 91 games to 16 losses to finish 21 games ahead of the second-place club. After the 1884 season, during which clubs folded in both the American Association and the Union Association, the St. Louis Maroons were admitted into the National League for the 1885 season, purchasing and replacing the franchise from Cleveland. This made St. Louis the western-most club in the National League. Without the support of Lucas, the Union Association folded, and many franchises that had risen to major league status in 1884 dropped back down to the lower leagues. One of these clubs was the club from Kansas City.
Kansas City joined the Union Association in 1884 after Altoona dropped out of the league. In 1885, it moved to the Western League, and in 1886 the club joined the National League along with Washington, another former Union Association club. These two clubs replaced Providence and Buffalo. Following the 1886 season, the controlling interest in the Kansas City franchise was purchased by a group including E.E. Menges, owner of a sporting goods store in Kansas City. During the winter of 1886-1887, Menges repeatedly insisted that the Kansas City club would compete in the National League in 1887, but that turned out to be out of his control.
About the same time that Menges took over ownership of the Kansas City club in November 1886, Pittsburgh jumped from the American Association to the National League, resulting in a nine-team league. Speculation was that the Maroons would drop out restoring the number of clubs to eight. Henry Lucas had sold the club in August of 1886 to a group of St. Louis businessmen, and while publically they were saying they were staying, it seemed clear the club was up for sale. The remaining clubs were concerned about the extended travel to Kansas City without the club in St. Louis, so Kansas City offered to help pay for some of the train fare to offset costs. In February of 1887, there were rumors that Kansas City had bought out the Maroons, but the league proclaimed nothing would be decided until the league meeting in early March. On the eve of the meetings, it was reported that Kansas City offered $20,000 for the St. Louis club, while a competing group from Indianapolis was only willing to pay $10,000. It seemed certain that Kansas City would retain its place in the National League. However, at the Association meeting on March 7, 1887, the offer from Kansas City was reportedly withdrawn. The Maroons franchise was sold to Indianapolis (players and all). The Kansas City club was bought out by the other NL clubs and Kansas City was out of the majors, again.
While Menges was negotiating on the fate of the Kansas City club in the National League, the Western League placed a new franchise in Kansas City for the 1887 season under the ownership of A.V. McKim. After Kansas City was dropped from the National League, Menges petitioned the Western League for ownership of that franchise, claiming his organization had rights to the Kansas City territory under the National Agreement. It took another month or so, but McKim and Menges worked out a deal leaving Menges in control of baseball in Kansas City with a club in the Western League for 1887.
The 1887 Western League season started with eight clubs located in Denver, Hastings, Kansas City, Leavenworth, Lincoln, Omaha, St. Joseph, and Topeka. In early July, the Hastings club purchased the club in Leavenworth and offered the frachise to Wichita. It took almost three weeks to resolve the details, during which time Lincoln and Omaha threatened to leave the league. Wichita ultimately took the franchise and the league stayed together. That configuration lasted just a few days before St. Joseph withdrew at the end of July. It took just over a week before Emporia was chosen to replace St. Joseph. Then Wichita disbanded in early September, and Emporia followed shortly after. By this time, the scheme to form the Western Association was already established. The summer's turmoil in the Western League and some general turmoil in the major leagues had led a group to propose a new league.
A key instigator in the scheme was E.E. Menges. Menges was upset about the state of the Western League, with clubs in cities of such differeing statures, clubs folding, and the general turmoil of the league. Reports about the new league started circulating in late August of 1887, with Menges, Sam Morton of Chicago (representing A.G. Spalding, owner of the Chicago White Stockings in the National League) and Chris Von der Ahe, owner of the St. Louis Browns in the American Association, identified as the main backers. On September 19, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an article in which a source stated that Von der Ahe was completely dismissive of the idea of new league placing a club in St. Louis (let alone the rumors that the Browns would transfer to this league), but that didn't stop the rumors. The new league would include the major cities in the Western and Northwestern Leagues, as well as St. Louis and Chicago. Spalding and Von der Ahe were reportedly concerned that a discussed reorganization of baseball after the 1887 season - in which the Eastern teams would jetison the Western clubs and form a league to themselves - would leave the Western cities without a major league. In addition, Von der Ahe was thinking of using a club in the Western Association as a place to stash players to help the Browns if needed. (It seems likely that Spalding was thinking about this as well.)
The clubs that would form the Western Association met for the first time in late September of 1887, prior to the end of the season. At that meeting, representatives for seven cities (Des Moines, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Milwaukee, Chicago, Omaha, and Kansas City) agreed to form a new league; Lincoln and St. Louis were both under consideration for the final slot. St. Louis (represented by proxy through Menges) submitted a letter in which Von der Ahe demanded that the club in St. Louis be subordinate to the Browns, with the club to be used as a training ground for new players, that there be no Sunday games, and that no games would conflict with the games of the Browns. No final decision was made, but Lincoln was tentatively awarded the eighth club, as none of the other clubs would accept Von der Ahe's terms. The final arrangements were to be made at a meeting in October, after the 1887 season ended.
The day after the meeting, the Post-Dispatch published a short blurb reporting that "St. Louis management" denied that any letter was written and that St. Louis was not involved with the new league beyond being considered for membership should a league be formed. This point was reiterated in an article on October 2 reporting on the formation of the new league.
The Western Association formally organized on October 26, 1887 at a meeting in Chicago. St. Louis was represented by Tom Loftus, on behalf of Chris Von der Ahe. After presentations by both St. Louis (during which Loftus provided assurances that the club would not be a training ground for the Browns) and Lincoln, the eighth franchise was awarded to St. Louis, under the control of Von der Ahe, with Loftus and Charlie Comiskey as minority owners. Sam Morton was elected as president, treasurer and secretary of the new league, while Des Moines, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Kansas City made up the Board of Directors. Des Moines, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and St. Paul were all required to resign their membership in the Northwestern League. All the clubs agreed to put up $1500 bond for membership by April of the following year. The new league also adopted some of the tennants of the American Association, namely $0.25 admission and the allowance of Sunday games. The new league applied for protection under the National Agreement (granted a few days later) and determined that a schedule would be set after the schedules for the two major leagues were released. The meeting was then adjourned. Within days, the clubs began signing players for the upcoming season.
While the Western League was not a major league, it is clear that it aspired to be the next best league in the nation. In Chicago and St. Louis, it had two of the top six most populous cities in the country. (Chicago ranked fourth in the 1880 census, and second in the 1890 census, while St. Louis was ranked sixth and fifth respectively.) Five of the other six clubs were in the top 25 in population by 1890, with only Des Moines (58th) outside that range. After the American Association placed a franchise in Kansas City for 1888 (replacing the New York club that folded), the Western Association was sharing cities with three major league clubs. Its stature as a significant league was recognized when its players were included in the Old Judge cards released during 1888 and 1889.