Just two years after the National and American Association vowed to "crush" the Union Association, the third major league has expanded to 20 teams -- the minimum the NA and AA insisted would be necessary to cut a deal -- and now, the three major leagues will be in a "pyramid", with the top UA teams switching with the AA bottom-feeders at the end of the 1887 season, and thereafter. Added to the Union loop are the
Lowell Chippies, Dayton Veterans, Grand Rapids Shamrocks and the
Reading Actives:
Relegated from NA to AA: Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Rochester.
Promoted from AA to NA: Washington Nationals, Worcester and Brooklyn Eckfords, giving both the nation's capital and the City of Churches two National Association clubs each.