The Dayton Veterans have slowly climbed the baseball ladder after joining the Union Association in 1887. After three years near the bottom, the Vets moved up to mid-table in 1890 then won a surprise Union pennant in '91. In 1894, Dayton finished third in the AA, giving them a shot at promotion to the National in '95. In the Union Cup playoffs, the Vets pushed past Grand Rapids two games to one, as reiging AA MVP Jesse Burkett's three RBI was the difference in a 8-5 triumph in Game 3. In the other quarterfinal, Rochester pounded Minneapolis in Game 1, 14-4, but the Millers came back when Pop Swett's two-run double game Minny a 9-7 win in Game 2. In the decider, Ernie Hickman held the Red Wings to five hits in a 3-1 win, and the Millers advanced.
In the semifinals, the Millers stayed hot: Dooley McDoolan fired a five-hitter as the Minnesotans crushed the Vets, 9-1 and hurler Fred Dwyer had four hits and three RBI, while scattering twelve hits in a 13-6 win. All Minneapolis had to do was win one game in Dayton, and they were off to the American Cup Final.
They never got it. Like a mighty army, the Veterans rolled over Millers' pitching, scoring 34 runs in three games. Burkett and Bill Hassamaer each drove in a trio of runs in a 11-1 slaughter in Game 3; Hassamaer and Dude Easterbrook each had three hits in a 10-1 laugher in Game 4; and, although the Millers did get some offense going in Game 5, it wasn't enough as Dayton erased a 8-0 deficit with eight in the seventh (including a grand slam from Hassamaer), then added five more in the eighth for a stunning 13-8 win, and the series.
The Milwaukee Brewers edged out the Baltimore Marylands by a single game to gain the final Union Cup playoff spot, and they made the best of it, defeating Jersey City, two games to one in the quarterfinals; after losing the first game, the Brews won 12-2 to force a third game, only to trail 4-2 after eight innings. With the bases filled, up stepped 20-year-old rookie John Anderson, who batted .361 on the season; Anderson sent a Harry Arundel pitch over the wall to give Milwaukee a 6-4 lead, winning the series. In the other quarterfinal, Reading actively put out first-time Cup participant Louisville in three games, as Bert Abbey scattered seven hits in a 8-2 win in the deciding match.
In the semifinal, Milwaukee won the first two games in Wisconsin at Borchert Field. In the opener, they were trailing the Actives, 3-1, in the seventh when they blew the game open with eight tallies, five of them unearned thanks to three Reading errors; in the second game, the Brewers stormed to an 8-3 lead but the Actives kept chipping away, scoring twice in the ninth until Henry Jones popped up with two out and a man on third: final score, 8-7.
At Lauer's Park in Reading, the Actives pulled one back, 8-4, as Scotsman Hugh Nicol and Irishman Tim O'Rourke each drove in two runs. But the next day, the Brewers punched their ticket to the Union Cup Final as starter George Rettger got his second win of the series, shutting down the (In-)Actives on seven hits in a 5-1 triumph.
