B O S T O N .Published by OLIVER DITSON & C0. 451 Washington St.

NEW YORK CHICAGO CINCINNATI SAN FRANCISCO P H I L A .C.H.DITSON & CO. LYON&HEALY. DOB MEYER & NEWHALL. McCURRIE.WEBER & CO. J . E.DITSON & CO.

1869 sheet music dedicated to the ladies of Cincinnati

The Team that Couldn'tBe Beat:

The Red Stockingsof 1869

by Joseph S. Stern, Jr.

When the umpire's traditional cry of "play ball" opens the 1969 seasonat Crosley Field, it will mark the one hundredth anniversary of the

nation's first professional baseball team: the Cincinnati Reds, successors tothe remarkable Red Stockings.

Never in the history of the game has there been another season like thatfirst one for the Red Stockings. In 1869, their initial year as a professionalteam, they took on all comers, semi-professional and amateur, from coast tocoast, emerging undefeated in every one of their sixty-nine games. This in-credible record focused national attention on the emerging spectator sportof professional baseball, and bestowed fame on the Red Stockings as well ason their hometown of Cincinnati.

When the Red Stockings finally lost their first game (on a fluke play) in1870, the tension that had steadily built up over two years of undefeatedcompetition was justifiably relieved. But with this first defeat the heart alsowent out of the ball club. The holy crusade was over; something had snapped;the team actually disbanded at the end of the 1870 season. But it left profes-sional baseball firmly established on the national scene—and this, rather thanits extraordinary debut, was the most significant contribution of the immortalRed Stockings.

Baseball, with its familiar diamond-shaped infield, developed in Americain the 1830's as an outgrowth of the English game of rounders or town-ball.It was an amateur game for gentlemen with time on their hands. ThoughThomas Jefferson demeaned games played with a ball as not being so usefulas recreation with horses or guns, baseball developed rapidly. Prominentfamilies enjoyed it, and gentlemen's baseball clubs were arranged informallyto promote the sport.

It soon became apparent that the game was not only enjoyable but, alongwith cock-fighting, animal-baiting, boat racing and boxing, a good spectatorsport as well. From informal club "pick-up" games it was an easy step toorganized teams. The Knickerbocker Club of New York, begun in 1845, isgenerally credited with fielding the first of these.

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The "Knicks" laid down rudimentary rules that with a little imaginationwould be recognized by the modern fan. The pitcher tossed underhand froma spot forty-five feet from home plate (overhand pitching didn't begin until1884). The catcher stood directly behind the batter only when the runnerswere on base. Originally it took nine balls to earn a walk, and the batter gottwo chances for a called third strike. The home team chose which half itwanted to bat. The ball itself was similar to today's. The players wore uni-forms of blue wool trousers, white flannel shirts and straw hats, and theyplayed barehanded. Then as now, there was an umpire, but he was chosenfrom among a group of prominent citizens esteemed for fair play. Perched ona stool between first base and home plate, this official cut a dignified figure inhis Prince Albert coat, silk hat, and cane.

The players likewise were gentlemen of leisure who supposedly played thegame simply for the sport. As competition grew keener, however, club mem-bers found they really wanted to win. They began to invite would-be gentle-men with particular baseball ability to join their rosters. One of these, whowas to figure prominently in the annals of the Red Stockings, was HarryWright. A young Englishman of working class background, he played cricketwith the St. George Cricket Club of Brooklyn, and also was an excellent base-ball player. Wright joined the Knickerbockers as a gentleman jeweller's ap-prentice. He was an amateur in name only, being paid "under the table" forhis services. Before long dozens of Harry Wrights were being asked to joinclubs; if a team wanted to win, the unwritten rule of "gentlemen only" was out.

By 1859, the New York area alone boasted twenty-five or more baseballclubs. On March 9 of that year, the clubs met at Cooper Institute in New YorkCity to establish rules and regulations for an over-all amateur body—The Na-tional Association of Baseball Players. This association of individual playersserved as the nucleus of organized baseball.

During the Civil War organized baseball was suspended, but the game wastremendously popular among the soldiers. On Christmas Day, 1862, two"picked nines" of Union Army soldiers played before an estimated 40,000 oftheir comrades at Hilton Head, South Carolina, possibly the largest crowd inthe nineteenth century to witness a sporting event. President Lincoln likedbaseball and often took his son Tad out to the ball game, to watch local armyteams near Washington. It was during the Civil War that baseball began tobe referred to as the National Game. A contemporary Currier and Ives printdepicting a baseball scene was titled "The American National Game ofBaseball."

After the war baseball began to come into its own; the days of the strictlyamateur game for "gentlemen only" were waning. With more leisure time forall, blue collar workers wanted to play too, and these men, often being hun-grier, played to win. Local pride naturally made for intense rivalries. Origi-nally clubs played only against neighboring teams, but from these games

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would emerge the best team, which soon was playing its counterpart in an-other city. With better performances, clubs began to charge admission. Asearly as 1864, the New York Mutuals charged ten cents admission when theyplayed the Brooklyn Atlantics. The smell of commercialism was in the air.

As good players won greater recognition, clubs began bidding for theirservices. At first, sub rosa offers were made, in the form of shares of the gatereceipts and bribes from gamblers. The best players were quick to take ad-vantage of this bull market. Al Reach, who later started the famous A. J.Reach Sporting Goods Company and was a star infielder for the PhiladelphiaAthletics, took a straight salary in 1863. Reach's success, and that of otherslike him, made such a sham of amateurism that the National Association ofBaseball Players declared amateurs should be separated from professionals,and defined a professional as one who plays for money. The lure of good paysoon made professional ball playing a coveted career; young working classmen saw an opportunity for fame and fortune. In 1868, the Brooklyn At-lantics were a typically motley team: their pitcher was a stone mason, thecatcher a postal employee, one of the infielders a shipping clerk, another aglass blower. Soon the teams became mixed, part professional, part amateur,but some clubs tried hard to preserve their original intent by developing sec-ond teams, strictly gentlemen amateurs. These were derisively referred to as"muffins" (like "duffers" in golf) by the pros who were attracting the spec-tators. Still, there were, as yet, no all-professional teams.

In 1868, the New York Clipper, SL popular theatrical newspaper which alsocovered sports such as boxing, crew racing, sculling, cock fighting, billiards,rackets, the turf, the trigger (pigeon shooting), chess, aquatics, sailing, bull-fighting, and snowshoe racing, began to take baseball seriously. In an effortto dignify as well as publicize the game, its editor, Frank Queen, offered agold ball to the nation's championship team and individual medals to theoutstanding players at each position. The Clipper was the sole arbiter of whowas best, and Queen became to early day baseball what Walter Camp becameto football when he created the "All American" awards. The Clipper awardswere highly coveted and immediately lent prestige to the game. The June 8,1868, Clipper boasted:

The Clipper, as the leading organ of all legitimate sports, was the firstto recognize in the game of baseball a recreation that was destined to bethe National Game of America. . . . With the sole desire to foster a spiritof emulation among clubs and players we offer these prizes. It mattersnot to us who wins in our noble game. We know no North, no South, noEast, no West. . . . Although the East has heretofore been the great base-ball playground of the country, the West is making rapid strides and bidsfair to outstrip the East.

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Henry Chadwick, a writer for the Clipper and a baseball enthusiast, becamethe game's greatest publicist. He could describe a game in a wonderfully ex-citing manner, but he was disturbed by the inconsistent status of the teamplayers themselves. While championing all-professional teams, he publicly de-nounced the so-called amateurs who accepted fees or who became "revolvers"(players who left their club in the lurch if they had a better offer from an-other club ).

In previewing the coming 1868 season, Chadwick let it be known whichteams he considered best. They included the Brooklyn Atlantics, the NewYork Mutuals, the Troy Haymakers, the Chicago White Stockings, the Phila-delphia Athletics, the Baltimore Marylands, and the newly-formed Red Stock-ings of Cincinnati, an obscure but up-and-coming club with a unique charac-teristic. Each member of the Cincinnati team, he noted, was under contractto play for the whole season as a professional player at a negotiated rate ofpay. With that announcement, Chadwick became the fledgling Red Stockings'biggest booster even though he himself was a New Yorker—for now he hadhis all-professional team.

The Cincinnati Baseball Club, which sired the Red Stockings, was orga-nized July 23, 1866, in the law office of Tilden, Sherman, and Moulton, inthe old Selves Building at 17V& West Third Street. Alfred T. Goshorn, anearly Cincinnati "wheeler-dealer" (who later became Sir Alfred, the onlyAmerican up until then ever to receive a title, when knighted by Queen Vic-toria for his work at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition) was electedpresident; Aaron B. Champion, vice president; Henry Glassford, treasurer;George Ellard, manager; and William Worthington, first scorer.

The Cincinnati Baseball Club was an amateur group made up mostly ofyoung attorneys, many of whom were Harvard and Yale graduates of the late1850's and early 1860's. They had been attracted to the sport in college, andsome of them would get up at four in the morning, don baseball outfits, andgo down to play a game before breakfast. On reaching the grounds at the footof Ninth Street in the Millcreek bottoms, not far from present day CrosleyField, they would choose up into two teams—the Morning Glories and the WideAwakes. After a game, they would return home, eat breakfast, dress in streetclothes, and go about their business. The club in 1867 had 380 members.Some of the well-known names in Cincinnati at that time were on its roster,among them Bellamy Storer, Jr., John R. McLean, George W. Neff, Larz An-derson, Samuel Kemper, Drausin Wulsin, Quinton Corwine, Stanley Mat-thews, Nicholas Longworth II, J. William Johnson, Andrew Hickenlooper, A.Howard Hinkle, Murat Halstead, Rufus King, Jr., James N. Gamble, WilliamProcter, Joseph S. Peebles, C. M. Erkenbrecher, John L. Stettinius and AsaWoodmansee.

The influence of baseball was now felt keenly in the city, and new clubswere forming all around town. Almost every suburb, from Riverside to Walnut

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The popularity of amateur baseball duringthe 1860's encouraged Alfred T. Goshorn,right, and Aaron B. Champion, below, tofield the nation's first all-professional team—the Red Stockings.

Hills, had a team of amateur players. Young William Howard Taft played withthe Mount Auburn nine, along with Stewart Shillito, who ran a dry goodsstore. The Avondale Club had William Greenwood, while Charles Resor andWilliam McAlpin played for Clifton.

In early 1867, the club relocated on the grounds of the nearby UnionCricket Club, then eleven years old. These grounds were used for cricket andbaseball in the summer and were flooded for skating in the winter. GeorgeEllard, a baseball enthusiast who owned a sporting goods store, was president;Harry Wright was listed as property man. He was the same Harry Wright ofthe St. George Cricket Club of Brooklyn, who had been imported the year be-fore to man the position of bowler for the Union Cricket Club.

In June 1867, the U.C.C. and the Cincinnati Baseball Club merged, withthe latter's name surviving. It was decided to build a clubhouse on FreemanAvenue, fence in the grounds, and charge twenty-five cents admission eitherin coin or in paper "shinplasters" for all matches. George Ellard designed uni-forms for the players: white flannel shirts, caps, and knee-length trousers,with distinctive long red stockings. It was from these handsome red stockingsthat the team promptly derived its nickname.

The principal local rivals of the Cincinnati Baseball Club in 1867 were theBuckeyes and the Live Oaks. The Buckeyes, in fact, were the first organizedbaseball team in Cincinnati, having been formally chartered in 1863, withgrounds in the old Millcreek bottoms. The mayor of Cincinnati, Charles F.Wilstach, was an honored member of the Buckeyes.

As the rivalry developed, the Red Stockings brought in more ringers, inaddition to Harry Wright, to form the first nine, causing much discord in theclub. Many of the strictly amateurs, men like Henry Probasco, Miller Outcalt,and Joseph Griffith, felt that importing players from other cities would killbaseball, so they formed a second team which called itself the CincinnatiAmateurs. The 1868 Red Stockings were still about half amateur and halfprofessional, Rufus King, Bellamy Storer, and J. William Johnson being themost prominent of the amateurs.

The first team was so good that three of its members, J. V. Hatfield, theleft fielder, Fred Waterman, the third baseman, and Johnson, the right fielder,were awarded the coveted Clipper medals, each being judged best in the coun-try in his position. Of these, only Johnson, a well-known and popular attorney,was a real amateur. The Clipper awards were presented in November after theclose of the 1868 season and lent great prestige to the emerging Red Stockings.The rival Buckeyes, who also had a few pros but none of whose players re-ceived so much as an honorable mention, were infuriated. This led to dissen-sion in the club and in April 1869 just before the start of the new season theold "Bucks" were dissolved. Not only the Bucks were unhappy, though; J. Wil-liam Johnson himself thought the game was becoming a travesty. "All ama-teur or all professional," he asserted, "you can't mix the two." In defense of his

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position, he resigned from the Red Stockings. He concurred with the Clipper'sHenry Chadwick, who staunchly propounded the thesis that baseball shouldemerge as a commercial spectacle, offering the players a true profession.

A group of baseball clubs in the East gave lip service to this proposition, butafter Johnson's resignation the key members of the Cincinnati Baseball Club,Goshorn, Champion, and Ellard, decided to do something about it. In a de-termined fashion, they went about putting together an all-professional team,hiring the best players they could get from wherever they could get them.They already had a sound nucleus and a superb player-captain in HarryWright. During the winter of 1868, Harry persuaded his brother George tocome out to Cincinnati from Washington and the ball was rolling.

As George Ellard, who has been called the father of professional baseball,described it: "When the Cincinnatis stepped upon the diamond in 1869, theywere the first regular professional nine ever gotten up in the country." For thefirst time in history, the actual salaries paid for the March 15-November 15season were published in the newspaper. The 1869 Red Stockings' roster andsalaries as published in the Clipper were as follows:1

Harry Wright, CaptainGeorge WrightAsa BrainardFred A. WatermanCharles J. SweasyCharles H. GouldDouglas AllisonAndrew J. LeonardCalvin McVeyRichard Hurley

Center FieldShortstopPitcherThird BaseSecond BaseFirst BaseCatcherLeft FieldRight FieldSubstitute

New YorkWashingtonNew YorkNew YorkNewarkCincinnatiJersey CityNewarkIndianapolisIndianapolis

$1,200$1,400

$1,100

$1,000

8 0 0

8 0 0

8 0 0

8 0 0

8 0 0

8 0 0

In his book Baseball in Cincinnati, Harry Ellard, George's son, describedthe players in a style that is not unfamiliar today. Douglas Allison was anunequalled cool and steady player whose "chief merit as a catcher lay in amanner in which he handled foul tips, the most dangerous kind of battedballs then, . . . no matter how hot they came." Asa Brainard, the pitcher, "de-livered a swift, twisting sort of a ball. . . [and] very rarely pitched a ballwhere the batsman expected it. . . ." Charles Gould, the only native Cincinnatiman on the nine, was familiarly known as "the bushel basket" because no ballthat came toward him ever got by. George Wright, as shortstop, "covered moreground in his position than any other man in the country. . . . He was activeas a cat, and the way he pounced on a hot daisy-cutter [grounder] and pickedit up, or made a running fly catch, was wonderful."2

Harry Wright was described as "the best captain in the world. . . . He wasalways quiet and self-sustained in his demeanor, but he gave his orders with

decision, and these were always obeyed implicity. In correcting any mistakeof his men, he never did it in an offensive or arbitrary manner. His favoriteexpression, 'You need a little more ginger,' acted as effectively as strongerlanguage. . . . He never got discouraged . . . and by his conduct always in-spired his men with confidence in their ability to win."3

At a meeting of the Cincinnati Baseball Club on April 5, Alfred Goshornresigned as president so that Aaron Champion, now the driving force, couldtake his place. Champion, a bright and able young lawyer from Columbus,Ohio, who moved to Cincinnati in 1864, became interested in baseball as astimulus to local business. Earlier, he had successfully organized the UnionCricket Club, and in 1868 raised $11,000 to refit the Union Grounds as theRed Stockings' home field. He sold $13,000 worth of stock in the CincinnatiBaseball Club to members in order to secure players. He would have liked tosign up all the Clipper gold medal winners of 1868, which would have beenthe equivalent of buying the National League All-Star team today. He did not,of course, and the Clipper admonished him for his attempt, but, undaunted,Champion assembled the remarkable team just described.

Even before the season started, team spirit was high. The players reportedthemselves to be in good shape, and Champion, sensing that he had a winningclub, decided to make an eastern tour challenging all comers for the cham-pionship of the country. Champion also realized the value of good publicityand arranged to have Harry M. Millar of the Cincinnati Commercial ap-pointed full-time reporter for the team, accompanying it wherever it went.Later, Millar and Henry Chadwick formed an embryonic Baseball WritersAssociation.

The 1869 baseball season started off modestly enough. There were no Open-ing Day ceremonies for which Cincinnati was later to become prominent, nobrass bands, no important officials throwing out the first ball. On April 17 atthe Union Grounds, the Red Stockings won 24 to 15 over a team composed ofthe best local players.

By late May the team seemed ready for its challenging eastern tour. Thenight before their departure by train from Cincinnati, President Championvisited each player in his room at the Gibson House to be sure of his where-abouts. He knew the coming trip was going to be hazardous and that gate re-ceipts depended on the players being in first rate condition. Harry Wrightvouched for his men; they in turn respected their modest captain.

By June 12, the Red Stockings had defeated seventeen teams, including theHarvard College varsity nine by a 30 to 11 score. They were scheduled to playYale on June 14 in New Haven, Connecticut, but were rained out and movedon to New York, fresh and in fit condition for their much-heralded game withthe Mutuals the following day. The New York Mutuals were considered thebest team in the country and the pre-season choice for national honors. Theyhad already defeated the Atlantics of Brooklyn, another pre-season favorite,

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, > » • •

The Clipper medals for outstanding playcreated popular support for the 1869Cincinnati team, which played on a diamonddiffering only slightly from today's.

and the fast-charging Athletics of Philadelphia. But the undefeated Red Stock-ings were coming into town and excitement was running high. There was agreat deal of betting, and by game time 7,000 fans had gathered while a thou-sand more perched on housetops overlooking the Union Grounds in Brooklynwhere the game was to be played.

The game was well covered by the press. The Cincinnati Gazette head-lined it:

VICTORY NO. I I FOR THE BOYSTHE TOLERATED CHAMPIONS MEET A WATERLOO

CLOSEST FIGHT AND SMALLEST SCORE ON RECORD

We are tossing our hats tonight, and shaking each other by the hand. Weare the lions, and baseball men are looking curiously at us as the clubover whose grounds, it is possible, will soon float the whip pennant-emblem of the national championship. . . .All this, because we have beaten the Mutuals, and because the game wasthe toughest, closest, most brilliant, most exciting in baseball annals.When the Mutuals had finished their ninth inning, and the Cincinnatiswent to the bat, the score standing even—two to two—the excitement ofthe great crowd was intense beyond descripion. Every motion, everymovement, every thought it almost seemed, of the players was watchedas drowning men watch the progress of a rescuing boat. When Leonardwent out with no runs secured, the excitement became almost fierce. Buta moment or two after in came Brainard with an immense rush and abound, and the great game was won. . . .The score stood 4 to 2. . . . The Mutual ball was given us, and we hadbeaten the big club.4

Harry Ellard described the scene in Cincinnati:

When the news of the victory at Brooklyn reached Cincinnati the excite-ment was beyond description. Salutes were fired, red lights burned andcheers were deafening. Everybody felt in the finest spirits, and manywere willing to lend their friends, and even their enemies, any sum with-out question. Bands were playing all over town and joy reigned supreme.5

After this celebrated game with the Mutuals, the Red Stockings wallopedthe Brooklyn Atlantics 32 to 10. They moved on to Philadelphia where theybeat the Athletics, then to Washington, D.C., where they defeated the Na-tionals. President Grant himself viewed the game and later complimented theplayers on their performances. On July 1 the team came home from its enor-mously successful eastern tour with an unblemished record.

The players, as could be expected, were given a royal reception. The Cin-

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cinnati Lumber Company presented the team with a huge bat twenty-sevenfeet long. On its side was painted "Champion Bat," and underneath was in-scribed each player's name. That evening there was a grand banquet at theGibson House attended by many local notables who proposed appropriatetoasts. When Aaron Champion was called upon he caught the spirit of theoccasion by remarking, "Some one asked me today whom I would rather be,President Grant or President Champion of the Cincinnati Baseball Club. Iimmediately answered him that I would by far rather be president of thebaseball club."6

But the season was only half over. On July 24, the Red Stockings narrowlydefeated the spunky Forest City Club of Rockford, Illinois, 15 to 14. ForestCity had the services of its great young pitcher A. G. Spalding, who later be-came the famous sportings goods manufacturer.

On August 27, the Haymakers of Troy, New York, were in Cincinnati toavenge an early season defeat, resulting in the most controversial game of theseason. The Haymakers were one of Chadwick's pre-season favorites, and un-usual interest was attached to the game because it was rumored that teamowner John Morrissey, an upstate New York politician and friend of BossTweed, had wagered $17,000 on his club.7 The visitors took an early lead butby the end of the fifth inning the score was 17 to 17, and it was obvious thatthe Red Stockings were coming on fast. In the sixth inning, Morrissey, in or-der to avoid paying off his bet, contrived to have the Haymakers leave the field.A near riot ensued, and even though the umpire gave the game to the RedStockings, it went into the record books as a tie. Enraged at the proceedings,Champion called a special meeting of the Cincinnati Baseball Club to discussthe matter. The Haymakers' portion of the gate receipts was withheld; it wasnot until some months later when a rightful apology was made that they re-ceived their share.

The affair was, of course, scandalous, and jeopardized the future of base-ball. On August 28, the Cincinnati Gazette editorialized:

The game of baseball has become a national institution [and] for themost part . . . has been free from the objectionable features which com-monly attach to outdoor sports. Bets have, of course, been made upon theissue of match games. But these have been privately made, and the play-ers themselves have, as a rule, we believe, been free from the reproach ofusing their profession as a means of gambling. This has been notably thecase with the Cincinnati Baseball Club. It was organized and is conductedby gentlemen who are incapable of using the club for the purpose ofmaking money, and no suspicion has ever fallen upon the Red Stockingsof ever having resorted to any tricks to win or save money, staked upontheir success.

Unfortunately, they came in collision last Thursday with a club whose

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In July 1869, following the successful eastern tour, Cincinnati wined,dined and presented her team with a twenty-seven foot "champion bat."

Scores Made by theCincinnati Red Stockings of 1869

Red Stockings OpponentsApril 17 Picked Nine, Cincinnati 24 15

24 Picked Nine, Cincinnati 50 7May 4 Great Western, Cincinnati 45 9

10 Kekionga, Fort Wayne, Ind 86 815 Antioch, Yellow Springs, 0 41 722 Kekionga, Fort Wayne, Ind 41 729 Great Western, Mansfield, O. (3 innings) . 35 5

June 1 Independents, Mansfield, 0 48 142 Forest City, Cleveland 25 63 Niagara, Buffalo 42 64 Alerts, Rochester 18 97 Haymakers, Troy, N. Y 37 318 Nationals, Albany 49 89 Mutuals, Springfield, Mass 80 5

10 Lowell, Boston 29 911 Tri-Mountain, Boston 40 1212 Harvards, Boston 30 1115 Mutuals, New York 4 216 Atlantics, New York 32 10

Red Stockings Opponents17 Eckfords, Brooklyn 24 518 Irvingtons, New Jersey 20 419 Olympics, Philadelphia 22 1121 Athletics, Philadelphia 27 1822 Keystones, Philadelphia 45 3024 Marylands, Baltimore 47 725 Nationals, Washington, D.C 24 828 Olympics, Washington, D.C 16 530 Baltics, Wheeling, W. Va. (3 innings) . . . . 44 0

July 1 Picked Nine, Cincinnati 53 113 Olympics, Washington, D.C. 25 145 Olympics, Washington, D.C 32 10

10 Forest City, Rockford, 111 34 1313 Olympics, Washington, D.C. (7 innings) . . 19 722 Buckeyes, Cincinnati (5 innings) 71 1524 Forest City, Rockford, 111. (4 innings) 15 1428 Empires, St. Louis 15 030 Cream City, Milwaukee 85 731 Forest City, Rockford, 111 53 32

August 2 Forest City, Rockford, 111 28 74 Central City, Syracuse 37 95 Central City, Syracuse (8 innings) 36 226 Forest City, Cleveland 43 27

11 Riversides, Portsmouth, 0 40 016 Eckfords, Brooklyn 45 1823 Southern, New Orleans 35 327 Haymakers, Troy, N. Y. (5 innings) 17 1731 Buckeyes, Cincinnati 103 8

September 9 Olympics, Pittsburgh 54 210 Alerts, Rochester 32 1915 Unions, St. Louis 70 916 Empires, St. Louis 31 926 Eagles, San Francisco 35 427 Eagles, San Francisco 58 429 Pacifies, San Francisco 66 430 Pacifies, San Francisco 54 5

October 1 Atlantics, San Francisco (5 innings) 76 511 Omahas, Omaha (7 innings) 65 112 Otoes, Omaha (5 innings) 56 313 Occidentals, Quincy, 111 51 715 Marions, Marion, Ind 63 418 Athletics, Philadelphia 17 1222 Louisville, Louisville 59 824 Cedar Hill, Cedar Hill, 0 40 10

November 4 Eagles, Covington, Ky. (6 innings) 40 105 Mutuals, New York 17 8

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reputation has not been unimpeached, and which so conducted itself hereas to confirm the suspicion that it was the tool of speculators.

Their conduct was a disgrace to themselves, a disgrace to the game,and an insult to the Cincinnati club and the audience who had receivedthem with every courtesy, and treated them with strict impartiality. Butthe circumstance is chiefly to be regretted because its tendency will be toprejudice the minds of the public against the game, and lead them to sup-pose that baseball, like some other sports, is under the control of thegambling fraternity. We hope that this single instance, the first that hasever occurred in this city, will not lead to such results.

Henry Chadwick wrote a similar chastisement in the New York Clipper.He felt that baseball had been dealt a damaging blow, but was optimistic thatit would not be permanently crippled.8

Having conquered in the East and at home, the team, still undefeated, againleft town on September 14 for a western tour. The western teams were hardlya match for Cincinnati. St. Louis was the first stop, where the Unions wentdown 70 to 9. The Eagles of San Francisco fell before the Red Stockings onSeptember 26 and 27, as did all the other clubs in the area. And just for va-riety, Harry Wright led his team to a victory over the Eagles in a game ofcricket as well.

Stung by earlier defeats, the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Mu-tuals then journeyed to the Queen City to challenge the Red Stockings on theirhome grounds. The exhilarated Cincinnatians climaxed the season by beatingthe Athletics on October 18 and the Mutuals on November 5. The Mutualswanted to try again, but enough was enough, and President Champion de-clined, claiming the Union Grounds were scheduled to be flooded in prepara-tion for winter skating.

And there it was: sixty-eight victories, one tie, and no defeats. Thus endedthe long season of the most successful baseball club this country has everproduced. The New York Clipper summed it up on November 13:

The unprecedented success of the Cincinnati Club is a bright spot in theannals of the game. The triumphant march of the Red Stockings fromone end of the country to the other will pass into the history of the na-tional game as the greatest achievement since the healthful and exhila-rating pastime was first incepted.

And again, the Clipper on December 25, in an editorial "A Little Plain Talk,"extolled the virtues of the club in the grandiose verbiage of the day:

Now in order to have something as a 'beau ideal' it is necessary to haveone club who, by skillful management or superior play, is looked upon as

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superior and for that purpose we will take the Western Department andchoose as our 'beau ideal the Cincinnati Club because it is better man-aged. It has passed a season without losing a game against the strongestclubs, having journeyed from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, from theGreat Lakes to the Capitol, thus traversing more ground than any twoclubs in the country.

The Red Stockings began the 1870 season with the same players as the yearbefore. The season started out almost a repeat of the previous year. The bestlocal teams were defeated; an eastern tour was arranged; Harvard and Yaleagain were scheduled, with the Red Stockings trouncing Harvard in Bostonon June 4. Their game with Yale the next day was rained out just as it hadbeen the year before, and then on to New York for a game on June 13 withthe Mutuals. The Clipper exclaimed, "Where there was one person that knewthat the Red Stockings were in New York last year, fifty persons knew it thisyear." The game wasn't even close, Cincinnati winning 16 to 3. Sports writersbegan predicting the team would go through another undefeated season, forthey had won twenty-seven games so far, ten on the eastern tour. But deepdown everyone knew they couldn't go on this way forever. When would thephenomenal winning streak end?

Then in New York on June 14, 1870, the Red Stockings met another of theirold rivals, the Brooklyn Atlantics. The odds favored the visiting Cincinnatiteam 7 to 1. In a special dispatch the Cincinnati Gazette reported, "An im-mense crowd assembled on the Capitoline Grounds this afternoon, to witnessthe game between the Red Stockings and Atlantics. . . . A few faint cheersgreeted our boys as they put in their appearance."

At the end of the ninth inning the score was 5 to 5. The Atlantics, whowanted to call the game a draw, carried their bats to the clubhouse. Thousandsof spectators left the ground, but Captain Wright insisted the game be playedout, and President Champion backed him up. The Red Stockings remained onthe field and the umpire, agreeing with Wright, summoned the Atlantics to re-turn. They did and the tenth inning was played out with neither team scoring.

In the eleventh inning, the Red Stockings tallied twice and it looked asthough their unbeaten record would continue to hold up. With one out for theAtlantics and Smith on third, Start hit a long ball to right field. Then, accord-ing to the New York Clipper,

As the ball came towards the crowd they gave way, and it fell upon thebank-side almost dead. McVey [the Reds' right fielder] was after it like aflash, but as he stooped to pick up the ball in the crowd one of the parti-sans present jumped on his back. The crowd did not sympathize with hisstyle of work. . . . but before McVey could handle and throw the ball, Startsecured his third, Smith having preceded him home.9

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Strangely enough, no reporter questioned this bizarre incident. The gamecontinued, as

Ferguson sent Start home and made his first base on a safe field grounder.The game now stood a tie, and intense and breathless are no kindof adjectives to express the excitement that prevailed. Zettlein went tohis first on a hot liner, well stopped by Gould. Hall hit to G. Wright,who threw to Sweasy. Sweasy muffed it, and then, as Ferguson was al-ready running toward the home plate, he threw to Allison [the Reds'catcher\, who missed it, and Ferguson came in, making the winning run.Then came applause such as I have never heard on any other occasion.It seemed as if the people could not contain themselves. They cheeredand swung their hats, and yelled, and shouted, and danced, till it seemedas if they would go wild. The club that had been regarded as the Invin-cible had been beaten—for the first time in two years.10

President Champion sent the following dispatch home:

New York, June 14, 1870—Atlantics, 8; Cincinnatis, 7. The finest gameever played. Our boys did nobly, but fortune was against us. Eleveninnings played. Though beaten, not disgraced.!!

But with that first defeat something happened to the team. The players hadknown they couldn't keep winning forever, and expressed relief; but they soonlost again on July 27. This second defeat was followed shortly by the resigna-tions of Aaron Champion as president and John P. Joyce as vice president onAugust 16. Champion, whose energy and ability had been vital to the RedStockings' success, and Joyce had both served without any compensation fromthe beginning. They had accomplished what they set out to do and now feltthey must return to their businesses. No one could criticize them, but withoutthem the team collapsed. Wright alone could not hold the players together.Before the end of the season, public interest also waned. The fans were no lessfickle a hundred years ago than they are today. The breakdown became com-plete when Harry Wright, the peerless captain, no longer able to counsel withChampion, announced he would join the Boston Baseball Club the followingseason. He took with him Gould, George Wright, McVey and Leonard—overhalf the team.

The Cincinnati Baseball Club was forced to disband on November 20, 1870,after the close of the season. A notice went out to members advising them theclub could not meet the higher salaries being offered by other clubs. In onebrief year all it had left was a glorious memory. Yet the Red Stockings had seta successful pattern—an all-professional team with a regular field manager.Their unprecedented success aroused such enthusiasm for the game that by

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1871 a score of teams throughout the country had followed their example.The stage was now set for the formation of a baseball league.

On March 17, 1871, the National Association of Professional Baseball Clubswas organized with member teams from thirteen cities. But the associationwas marred from the start by drunkenness, bribery, desertion and breach ofcontract. In such an atmosphere William "Boss" Tweed, a founding memberof the association who owned the New York Mutuals, saw his team flourishwhile most of the other teams floundered.

The one exception was Harry Wright's team from Boston. With the Cincin-nati Baseball Club no longer in existence, Wright had expropriated the cele-brated Red Stockings' name for his new club—a name which has been associ-ated with Boston ever since. He also signed up A. G. Spalding, the phenome-nal young pitcher from Rockford, Illinois. Wright maintained good disciplineamong the players and won the association championship four times in a row.

By 1875, the original thirteen clubs in the association had dwindled toseven; it could not survive long under these conditions and folded that sameyear. Yet it was a major league, the first one ever, and out of its demise camethe formation of the National League. On February 21, 1876, representa-tives of seven clubs, including John Joyce of Cincinnati, met at the GaitHouse in Louisville to draw up plans. Joyce represented George and JosiahKeck, who owned a brand new professional Cincinnati Baseball Club. Where-as the old National Association of Professional Baseball Clubs was a looseorganization, the new National League put teeth into its charter from itsinception. It created a firm schedule and centralized control of a team throughthe club rather than through the players. The history of the National Leagueis another story, but it couldn't be told without the Reds. There has been aCincinnati Reds team in it from the beginning, the only one of the originalclubs that remains today. And with them is the enduring heritage of the oldRed Stockings—the team that couldn't be beat.

JOSEPH S. STERN, J R . , is President of J. S. Stern, Jr. &• Company and AdjunctProfessor of Business Policy at the University of Cincinnati.

(1) New York Clipper, June 19,1869. (7) Cincinnati Daily Gazette, August 28,(2) Harry Ellard, Baseball in Cincinnati 1869.

(Cincinnati, 1907), p. 145-46. (8) New York Clipper, August 29, 1869.(3) Ibid., p. 145. (9) Ibid., June 14,1870.(4) Cincinnati Daily Gazette, June 16, 1869. (10) Cincinnati Daily Gazette, June 15,(5) Ellard, p. 161. 1870.(6) Ibid., p. 165. (11) Ellard, p. 189.