History of Baseball Team Nicknames - Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City, Missouri

Being at the fringe of the old west, and thus connected with cowboys and cattle, several of Kansas City's teams have had nicknames reflecting that culture.

There were three different short-lived major league teams called the Kansas City Cowboys in the 1800s, the Kansas City Cowboys of the Union Association in 1884, the National League Cowboys in 1886, and the American Association Cowboys in 1888 and 1889.

The minor league entry in the Western League (original) in the late 1890s was the first to use the name Kansas City Blues, presumably from their team colors. The Western League became the American League in 1900, still a minor league. When the American went major in 1901, the Kansas City entry was dropped.

A revived minor league club also called the Kansas City Blues operated in the American Association during the first half of the 20th Century. The team became a New York Yankees farm team in the 1930s. The team transferred to Denver in 1955 when the Philadelphia Athletics came to town as the Kansas City Athletics. Ironically, that "Yankees Kansas City farm club" situation continued, as the A's ownership fed numerous quality players to the Yankees until the 1960s when Charles O. Finley acquired the team. Finley soon incurred the wrath of Kansas City fans also, and transferred the team to Oakland in 1968.

Perhaps the most famous team in Kansas City was the Kansas City Monarchs, the longest-running of the various Negro league baseball teams that operated as an apartheid culture until major league baseball was integrated in 1947 by one-time Monarch Jackie Robinson. Continuing the dubious Kansas City tradition, the Monarchs effectively served as a "farm club" for all of the major leagues in their waning years, supplying a number of star black players to the majors before folding in the 1960s.