Amateur teams played baseball in St. Louis at least as early as the 1850's.  The first use of nationally-accepted base ball rules occurred locally in 1860.  Most competition through 1866 was between local amateur clubs, with the Unions and the Empires being the early powers.

The Union Base Ball Club of St. Louis formed in the city of St. Louis in the year 1860. Its first captain was a man named E.C. Simmons, who would later become famous for creating and marketing his “Keen Kutter” brand of tools.

Local publications show that the Unions were among the most successful clubs playing ball in the city in the 1860’s, as they won the St. Louis Championship in 1862, 1867 and 1868. After the first all-professional club, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, proved beyond a doubt in 1869 that base ball could be big business, new professional clubs began to lure the best players away from the local amateur teams. The Unions were unable to weather the storm and folded after the 1870 season.

Riding the wave of vintage base ball popularity in the new century , Brian “Ricochet” Robison resurrected the Union club in 2004 and based it in the north St. Louis County suburb of Florissant. The Unions finished their first season with a record of 10-20, but improved in every facet of the game and in 2005 earned a 24-18 record, capped by winning the first Missouri Cup vintage base ball championship tournament.

The club’s home field is located behind Old St. Ferdinand’s Shrine (built 1821) in historic Florissant, on the banks of Coldwater Creek where the town was founded in 1786. The Unions regularly play Missouri opponents from south St. Louis (Perfectos), New Baden (Juniors) and University City (Lions), and have taken their game on the road to play the “Knights of Ball” in such places as Decatur, Danville and Murphysboro in Illinois, as well as Hobart, Indiana, and Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio.