Altoona Mountain City

Altoona Mountain City

• Win-Loss Record: 6-19 (.240)
• Ballpark: Columbia Park (Apr. 30-May 31, 1884)

The Altoona Mountain City, also known as the Altoona Unions or Altoona Pride, was the only major league team to play in the small city of Altoona, PA.

When Henry Lucas could only get seven members for his new Union Association in 1884, he had to settle for placing a team in Altoona. The team joined the UA on February 20th; its initial bid to join the league was denied. The schedule did not help the Mountain City squad out - they played their first seven games in Cincinnati and St. Louis against the top two teams in the league. When they came home 0-7 on April 30th they again faced Lucas's own St. Louis Maroons team and lost four straight. On May 10th, they won their first game, but after six weeks they folded with a 6-19 record. Lucas had the team replaced by the Kansas City Cowboys.

Source: "The Beer and Whisky League" by David Nemec

• Peter Filichia: Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebrations of All 273 Major League and Negro League Ballparks Past and Present, Addison Wesley Publishing Company (March 1993)

Baseball had been played in Altoona as early as 1862, and this club is not to be confused with the Mountain Base Ball Club of Altoona, which existed through 1868. In 1869 a new amateur club called the Mountain City was formed. See history

Related Sites

• The Altoona Unions at the SABR Bio Project