Once Upon a Team: The Epic Rise and Historic Fall of Baseball's Wilmington Quicksteps

In 1884, professional baseball was still in its infancy. The National League was less than a decade old, the National Association (which had been around since 1871) was now defunct, the American Association (which began two years earlier) were nipping at the NL’s heels, and a new league—the Union Association—was in its first year.

With all that going on, a hard-playing, hard-drinking club out of tiny Wilmington, Delaware—the Quicksteps—were so dominating their minor-league opponents that the...