Shrouded by time, the Union Association has gone almost ignored by baseball historians in recent years, dismissed as an inferior league that doesn't belong in the same ballpark as the American, National, or even the Federal Leagues. But, as special guest Justin McKinney shows in his new book, Baseballl's Union Association: The Short, Strange Life of a 19th Century Major League, that doesn't matter as much as what the league and the men who made it up can teach us about the game's early history and the lengths the National League and American Association would go to make sure they were the only games in town.

Plus, happy birthday to Cecil Cooper and Zoilo Versalles!