For the current Major League Baseball team that has played since 1881, see Cincinnati Reds. For the first openly all-professional baseball team that played from 1869 to 1870, see Cincinnati Red Stockings.
The Cincinnati Reds, also known as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, were a professional baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio that played from 1875–1879. The club predated the National League of which it became a charter member.
John Joyce, who was an organizer of the Red Stockings club dismantled in 1870, reformed the club through a new company in 1875. Two players from the 1870 season returned as part of a new professional nine which played local amateur clubs.[1] Joyce then sold the Reds to wealthy Cincinnati meat packer Josiah "Si" Keck during the winter. When the National League was formed on February 2, 1876 at the Grand Central Hotel in New York City, eight cities were selected to compete in the new major league: St. Louis, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and Keck's Cincinnati club.[2]
In the 1878 season, player/manager Cal McVey piloted Cincinnati to second place in the league. Charley Jones led the team with 3 homers and Will White led the team with 169 strikeouts. Sharing the managing duties, catcherDeacon White and McVey managed the team to 5th place. Starting pitcher Will White hurled 232 strikeouts. Baseball Hall of Fame member King Kelly played on the 1878 and '79 Reds.
Following the 1879 season, the club was disbanded. Justus Thorner, owner of the semi-professional Cincinnati Stars, purchased a new National League franchise and moved his club into the vacant spot left by the Reds; the Stars folded after the 1880 season. A new Reds franchise debuted in 1882 in the American Association, and joined the National League in 1890.