Fort Wayne Kekiongas
Winners of the first professional league game.
The Fort Wayne Kekiongas were a professional baseball team that won the first professional league game on May 4, 1871. The team's name derives from Kekionga, the Miami Indian settlement of Chief Little Turtle, meaning Blackberry Patch. In contemporary game reports, the club was usually listed simply as "Kekionga" or "the Kekiongas."
Quick Facts
- First professional league game
- May 4, 1871
- Opponent in first game
- Cleveland Forest Citys
- Score of first game
- 2–0
- Pitcher in first game
- Bobby Mathews
- Umpire of first game
- John Boake
- Attendance at first game
- 200
- Franchise fee
- $10
Facts from the source article.
Pre-National Association
Play halted when members enlisted in the Union army, some dying in the war. The club reorganized in 1866, and the Kekionga Base Ball Club of Fort Wayne was also formed that year. The Kekiongas won their first game on August 24, 1866, defeating the Enterprise of Sydney 54–34 in Sydney; Charles Taylor and John Evans each hit a home run, and Diehl served as captain. A challenge to the state champion club in La Porte for September 18, 1866, produced no recorded result. In October 1866, the Kekiongas beat a local rival 66–40, with second baseman Lumbard hitting two home runs and shortstop Bell one; John Hoagland was captain. On November 9, 1866, they defeated the Summit City club 80–29, hitting twelve home runs—Bell hit four, and Hoagland, Hadden, F.A. Gorham, Lumbard, Aveline, Diehl, C. Gorham, and Shoaff each hit one. Aveline received a huge cigar for making zero outs and scoring eleven runs. In 1867, the team toured the upper Midwest. Frank H. Wolke, a non-player, served as Vice President of the 1867 State Base Ball Convention in Indianapolis. George Mayers attended and was chosen captain of a team of conference attendees that lost to the Westerns 50–8, with the Picked Nine citing unfamiliarity with teammates.
1871 National Association
The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players formed in New York City in 1871, with the Kekiongas among nine teams. Each team paid a $10 franchise fee and played a best-3-of-5 series against each other; the best team would fly a pennant for a year. Season tickets for the Kekiongas sold for $5, admitting two people. A coin flip decided that the Kekiongas would play the first game of the new league. The game was held at the Kekionga Ball Grounds. Bobby Mathews, 20 years old and 5'5", 140 pounds, pitched a 2–0 shutout. Cleveland's Deacon White had three hits in four at-bats, while his teammates managed only two hits combined; White recorded the first hit, first extra-base hit (a double), and was the first to hit into a double play. The game was rained out in the top of the ninth inning. Attendance was 200, and John Boake umpired. Mathews later pitched five seasons each in the National Association, National League, and American Association, and is the only player to pitch 100 games or win at least 50 in three different major leagues; he is credited with inventing the spitball and the out-curve. Deacon White ended his 22-year career as playing owner of Buffalo's Brotherhood team.
Half a season
The people of Fort Wayne pooled their money to build a grandstand at Kekionga Base Ball Grounds, which sat on the old Camp Allen, a Union Army training site. They called the structure the Grand Dutchess because of its fancy design. The fire department could not save the grandstand when it burned down on November 5, 1871, as the flames had too much of a head start. Few paying fans showed up, and the players received little or no pay. Some players from Baltimore, missing home, left the team. The club fell apart by mid-season, playing its final game on August 29 and ending with seven wins. Bill Lennon managed the first 14 games, and Harry Deane handled the last five. First baseman Jim Foran, age 23, led the offense with a .348 average; he had played third base for the Philadelphia Athletics before but never returned to professional baseball, dying at 80 in Los Angeles. Pitcher Bobby Mathews went 6-11 for the Kekiongas and later won 42 games in 1874 for the New York Mutuals.
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