Bernard McLaughlin was a Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 player. He played three seasons in the majors, spaced at three year intervals, for three different teams, in three different leagues, at three different positions.

McLaughlin made his major league debut in for the Kansas City Cowboys

Kansas City Cowboys (Union Association)

The Kansas City Cowboys were a team in the Union Association during its only season, . Referred to as the "Cowboys" mostly by historians, they had no official nickname during their short life and were most frequently referred to by local press of the day as the "Unions" and by the press of other...

 of the short-lived Union Association

Union Association

The Union Association was a league in Major League Baseball which lasted for only one season in 1884. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season...

. With the Cowboys, he was an outfielder

Outfielder

Outfielder is a generic term applied to each of the people playing in the three defensive positions in baseball farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder...

, playing in about half their games—more than any other Cowboys outfielder except Taylor Shafer

Taylor Shafer

Zachary Taylor Shafer was a Major League Baseball player in the 19th century. He played parts of two seasons...

.

After playing in the minor leagues with Waterbury of the Eastern League

International League

The International League is a minor league baseball league that operates in the eastern United States. Like the Pacific Coast League and the Mexican League, it plays at the Triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball. It was so named because it had teams in both the United States...

 in , where he was the team's starting shortstop

Shortstop

Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball fielding position between second and third base. Shortstop is often regarded as the most dynamic defensive position in baseball, because there are more right-handed hitters in baseball than left-handed hitters, and most hitters have a tendency to pull the...

, McLaughlin returned to the majors in with the National League

National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

's Philadelphia Quakers

Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...

. With the Quakers, McLaughlin played primarily as a second baseman

Second baseman

Second base, or 2B, is the second of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a base runner in order to score a run for that player's team. A second baseman is the baseball player guarding second base...

, splitting time at the position with Charlie Bastian

Charlie Bastian

Charles J. Bastian was a right-handed infielder in four different major baseball leagues in the 19th Century...

 and Charlie Ferguson (who was also one of the Quakers' starting pitchers).

After two more seasons away from the majors, McLaughlin resurfaced in . This time, he was playing shortstop for the Syracuse Stars

Syracuse Stars (American Association)

The Syracuse Stars was an American baseball team which played one season in the American Association in . They were unrelated to the Syracuse Stars of the National League of...

 of the American Association

American Association (19th century)

The American Association was a Major League Baseball league that existed for 10 seasons from to . During that time, it challenged the National League for dominance of professional baseball...

 in their only major league season. McLaughlin's double-play partner with the 7th-place Stars was 22-year-old rookie Cupid Childs

Cupid Childs

Clarence Algernon "Cupid" Childs was an American second baseman in Major League Baseball with a 13-season career from 1888, 1890–1901, playing for the Philadelphia Quakers, Cleveland Spiders, St. Louis Perfectos and Chicago Orphans of the National League and the Syracuse Stars of the American...

, who would go on to a fine career. For McLaughlin, however, it was the end of the road.

McLaughlin's brother, Frank McLaughlin

Frank McLaughlin (baseball)

Francis Edward McLaughlin was an infielder for Major League Baseball in the 19th century.-Biography:He was born on June 19, 1856 in Lowell, Massachusetts. He died on April 5, 1917 in Lowell, Massachusetts.-Sources:**...

, was also a major league player. The two were teammates on the Cowboys, with Frank ending his career as Barney was starting his.

Sources