Cincinnati Red Stockings

Did You Know?

• The 1869 Red Stockings posted a perfect 57–0 record, the only perfect season in professional baseball history.
• More than 2,000 people greeted the team when it arrived in San Francisco at 10:00 p.m. during their 1869 tour.

Baseball club

The Cincinnati Base Ball Club was established on July 23, 1866, at a downtown law office, with Alfred T. Goshorn as its first president. Founding member George B. Ellard also led the Union Cricket Club, a relationship that proved decisive for the baseball club's success. The team's first home field was at the foot of Ninth Street in the Mill Creek bottoms. After joining the NABBP for 1867, the club played at the Union Cricket Club grounds, where many cricket club members joined, strengthening the team. Plans for a new clubhouse and fence were approved in April, and a commercial basis was set in June: members of both clubs admitted free, with ten cents for home matches and twenty-five cents for foreign matches, ladies free. The team was soon nicknamed "Red Stockings" for the long red stockings in their uniforms, a novelty at the time. Harry Wright moved from New York in 1866 as a club pro for the Union Cricket Club and took on baseball duties in 1867, often called the team's manager. His first team was local, but he developed and imported players for 1868, winning 16 matches against regional opponents and losing only to the touring Nationals from Washington.

First professional team

When the NABBP permitted professional members for 1869, Harry Wright and likely George Ellard organized a fully professional team of ten men on salary from March 15 to November 15. Harry Wright played center field and coordinated team defense, while his younger brother George Wright, the team's best player, played shortstop. The professional Red Stockings debuted on May 4, 1869, with a 45–9 win over the Great Westerns. They won 57 games against Association clubs and over 60 total, including an unprecedented continental tour visiting Boston and San Francisco. The season ended November 6 with a 17–8 win over the Mutuals of New York. In 1870, the team continued winning regularly, losing only six games, but attendance declined.

1870–1871

Bob Ferguson scored the winning run on a hit by pitcher George Zettlein. On November 21, 1870, the Executive Board, led by President A.P.C. Bonte, recommended not employing a nine for 1871 due to expense, anticipating a development of amateur talent. The officers disbanded the company, and a public meeting of members put that decision into effect. Harry Wright was hired by Boston businessman Ivers Whitney Adams to organize a new pro club in Boston, persuading four Cincinnati teammates to join the 1871 Boston Red Stockings in the first professional league. The current Cincinnati Reds club identifies with the Red Stockings despite early reorganizations. The Boston Red Stockings evolved into the Boston Braves, now based in Atlanta, while the Boston Red Sox adopted their nickname in 1908.

Players

The 1869 team consisted of ten men: Asa Brainard (pitcher), Doug Allison (catcher), Charlie Gould (first base), Charlie Sweasy (second base), Fred Waterman (third base), George Wright (shortstop), Andy Leonard (left field), Harry Wright (center field, manager), Cal McVey (right field), and Dick Hurley (substitute). From 1867, Harry Wright fulfilled duties of field manager, general manager, and traveling secretary. In 1868, he and Brainard shared pitcher and second base with Allison, Gould, and Waterman. Among them, only Gould was a Cincinnati native; others were from the East. For 1871, the nine split: Gould, the Wright brothers, and McVey joined the Boston Red Stockings; Brainard, Allison, Sweasy, Waterman, and Leonard joined the Washington Olympics. Substitute Hurley played briefly with the Olympics in 1872. Andy Leonard rejoined Gould, the Wrights, and McVey in Boston for 1872, the first of four consecutive championships. Harry Wright won his last two championships as a non-playing manager in 1877–1878 with Leonard and George Wright still regulars.