Moses Fleetwood Walker, the first African-American player in Major League Baseball. McGuire and Walker each caught 41 games for the Blue Stockings. The Blue Stockings finished in eighth place (out of 13 teams) with a 46–58 record and folded after the 1884 season. Detroit Wolverines McGuire began the 1885 season playing for the Indianapolis Hoosiers of the newly formed Western League. McGuire appeared in 16 games for the Hoosiers, who were the dominant team in the Western League, compiling an .880 winning percentage. In mid June 1885, the Western League disbanded, and a mad rush developed to sign the players on the Indianapolis roster, a line-up that included McGuire, Sam Thompson, Sam Crane, Chub Collins, Jim Donnelly, Mox McQuery, Gene Moriarty, and Dan Casey. Sam Thompson later told the colorful story of the Detroit Wolverines' acquisition of the Indianapolis players. Detroit sent two representatives (Marsh and Maloney) to Indianapolis, principally to sign the Hoosiers' battery of Larry McKeon and Jim Keenan. The Wolverines were outbid by the Cincinnati Reds for McKeon and Keenan but wound up with the Hoosiers' manager (Bill Watkins) and the rest of the team's starting lineup. The only catch was that a 10-day waiting period would allow other teams to outbid Detroit. Marsh and Maloney promptly sent the players to Detroit and quartered them in a hotel there. The next morning, the players were told that the team had arranged a fishing trip for them. The players boarded the steamship Annette and enjoyed the first day and night of successful fishing. After three days, the players became suspicious, but the ship captain laughed when asked when they would return to Detroit. As the players became mutinous on the sixth day, the captain admitted he had been ordered to keep them "out at sea" for 10 days. In another account, Thompson described his 10 days aboard the Annette as follows: "We were prisoners, but well cared-for prisoners. Anything in the line of creature comforts you could find packed away on ice. We lived on the best in the market, and spent the rest of the time in fishing and playing poker, chips having very thoughtfully been provided. On the night of the tenth day, at midnight, we were all taken ashore where Watkins met us and signed us to our contracts." The players were only later presented with their accumulated mail which included scores of offers from