The Cincinnati Reds will forever hold a special place in baseball history. The Reds, then called the Red Stockings, were the very first professional baseball team. Two brothers named Harry and George Wright started the Cincinnati Reds in 1869. They intended the team to be a traveling show that went town to town playing an local baseball team that would dare challenge them. They won nearly every game and frequently beat the challenging team by 50 runs or more.
In 1876 they joined the newly formed National League. In 1919, they made it to their first World Series game against the Chicago White Sox. The Reds won the series but it was later discovered that 8 White Sox players had been bribed to throw the series. This scandal, later to be called the Black Sox Scandal, not only resulted in 8 White Sox players being banned for life from baseball, it also created doubt as to whether the Cincinnati Reds had actually won the 1919 World Series. To this day, the win is in doubt.
The Cincinnati Reds would become involved in another betting scandal 70 years later in 1989. The former Cincinnati Reds player and then manager, Pete Rose, was accused of betting on baseball. Though Pete Rose denied the charges, he was banned from baseball for life.
This came as a shock to both the Cincinnati Reds and the baseball community. Pete Rose was one of the all time heroes of baseball as the Home Run King. On September 11, 1985, Pete Rose had beaten the Home Run record, previously held by Ty Cobb. The thought that such a baseball giant might have bet on baseball sent shockwaves through fans and players.
But baseball scandals are not all that the Cincinnati Reds are known for. In 1944, Joe Nuxhall pitched for the Reds in one game, making him the youngest Major League player ever. He was 15 years old.
In 1935, Cincinnati was also the site of the first professional baseball game played at night.
Other famous Cincinnati Reds players have been Ernie Lombardi, Frank Robinson, Johnny Bench, Johnny Vander Meer Tony Perez, Barry Larkin and Eric Davis.
The Big Red Machine marches on in Cincinnati. Despite their scandalous history, the Cincinnati Reds were and always will be the First in Baseball. To commemorate this fact, Cincinnati is traditionally the city where the first game of the baseball season is played.
To learn more about the Cincinnati Reds, visit their official site at www.cincinnatireds.com.