His longest time with one team was with the Chicago White Stockings from 1879 to 1882, a stretch that included National League pennants in 1880, 1881, and 1882.

[2] Quest began his major league career in 1871 at age 18 with the Cleveland Forest Citys of the National Association of Professional Baseball Players.

Quest was the team's regular second baseman in 1878, compiled a .205 batting average, and led the National League with 290 plate appearances and 221 outs made.

[1] In his autobiography, Cap Anson praised Quest's contributions to the White Stockings:"Joe was a good, reliable, steady fellow, but a weak batsman.

[1][9] Over the next four seasons, Quest played for four different teams, compiling a batting average of .212 with 35 doubles, 11 triples, and 56 RBIs.

[13] By 1920, Quest was living at 743 West Hawthorne in San Diego, California, with his sons, Joseph and Robert, and daughter, Helen Ethel.

[1] Quest has been credited in several accounts with coining the phrase "Charley horse" to describe a sudden leg cramp or sprain.

According to that version, Quest and several other members of the White Stockings spent an off day at a horse race on the south side of Chicago.

[16][17][18] The earliest known account of the phrase's origin in reference to a sports injury was published in the Boston Globe in 1886.

"[19][20] According to a third account, published in 1889, Quest coined the phrase based on his experience working in his father's machine shop, where an old horse named "Charley" walked stiffly after pulling heavy loads.

When later observing ball players walk with a similar stiffness after a cramp or strain, Quest was reported to have referred to the condition as a "Charley horse".

[2] A fourth account, published in 1937, stated that Quest developed the phrase after limping off the field and commenting, "I'm as lame as that old white horse Charley over there in the lot."

According to that account, team-mates began calling Quest "Charley horse" and used the term to refer to painful body stiffness from over-strained muscles.

One such version attributed the phrase to Charlie Esper, a pitcher who reportedly walked "like a lame horse."