Cincinnati Reds Origin

Ever wonder who the first paid team of baseball players was? How about how the Reds got their name? Well you are in luck because we discuss the answers to both in this episode.

Drawing courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first professional team. Harpers Weekly magazine July 3, 1869 edition.

According to a story on Cincinnati.com, the Cincinnati Reds baseball franchise started its existence on March 15, 1869. The original moniker of the club was the Red Stockings identifying the bright red colored knee-high socks worn by the players. The proper name in that era for the high worn stockings was to call them ballists.  The club was formed by a man named Harry Wright per the MLB.com story on the Reds origins. The Red Stockings played their home games at a place called the Union Grounds, which was located just west of downtown.

The 1896 Red Stockings, were dressed to the hilt for ballplayers of that era and they were an exceptionally good team. Yeah good enough that they recorded an unbelievable record of 57-0 in that inaugural season! They played not only home games but they traveled from the East Coast all the way to the West Coast taking on all challenges of opponents. To do this Wright paid his men on the roster making them the very first paid players in professional baseball. For some unknown reason, except for maybe it was thought there would be a better opportunity in a larger market, Harry and his brother George Wright left the team for Boston. That version of the Red Stockings disbanded in their absence. This pair of Wright brothers from South Eastern Ohio didn't fly an airplane but they did help to start another Red Stockings baseball club in Boston. I know what you are thinking but no they did not directly become the Red Sox, they actually eventually became the Boston Braves.

The first nine of the Red Stockings, manufactured from the best Havana tobacco by Henry Koop, 315 Central Avenue bet. 8th and 9th Str. Cincinnati, O. / Tuchfarber, Walkley, and Moellmann, Lith., NW cor. Court & Main St., Cin. O. lithograph. Courtesy the U.S> Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons.

Back to baseball in Cincy...At the advent of the National League in 1876, the town of Cincinnati jumped on board with a new rendition of the Red Stockings. Unfortunately they ended up getting kicked out of the NL a few years later because they sold beer at games and wanted to play games on Sundays. Two big No-Nos for the Senior Circuit in that era. With that the franchise joined the less restrictive American Association in 1881 and that seems to be when they started to start to assimilate to being called the Reds. Nine years later in 1890 the Reds of Cincinnatti rejoined the National League.

After World War II thanks to the scare of the spread of Communism by Senator Joseph McCarthy and others the Cincy baseball orgainization officially changed their names to the Redlegs in 1953 to avoid anything to do with the "Red Scare." They club owners even went as far to remove any sort of mention of Reds from its home jerseys in 1956 and went with just a fancy letter C on the unis. The 1956 traveling road jersey displayed but a Mr. Redlegs with a big mustache on left chest area, but that lasted just the one season before the gray uniforms also went with a simple wishbone-C the same as the home ones. In 1959 with the threat of McCarthy's era onf intimidation over the club switched back to their previous Reds name. Oddly enough they also made it into the post season that year after only making it to the dance twice as the Redlegs.

Good fortune would follw as  a decade later the Big Red Machine formed and happy times were in Cincy once again.

Photos are courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of the Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first professional team. Harpers Weekly magazine July 3, 1869 edition.