The Red Stockings of Cincinnati: Base Ball's First All-Professional Team and Its Historic 1869 and 1870 Seasons

In early 1869, Harry Wright of the Cincinnati Base Ball Club made an announcement to the sporting press: the Red Stockings would be the first all-professional club in the history of the game. The outcry could be heard in nearly every town in which the sport was played. Wright, however, paid little heed to their protests and went about his business of signing players. By the start of the season he had inked ten players to contracts, with salaries ranging from $600 to $1,400 annually. By June of 1870, the Red Stockings had compiled a 90-game winning streak and were recognized as the finest team in the game. How the Red Stockings were formed, who the players were, and why things came to an end are all fully covered in this detailed history.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Preface       1. Base Ball Before the Red Stockings      2. Professionalism Enters the Game      3. A Quest in the Queen City      4. Building a Ball Club      5. Pros-And Their Cons      6. To Be Purely Professional      7. Throwing Down the Gauntlet of Defiance      8. A Blazing Scarlet in the Spring      9. Looking to the East       10. The Journey Begins      11. The Gotham Showdown      12. “Oh, How Is This for High?”      13. The Glory of the Queen City      14. Unblemished Still      15. “A Most Contemptible Trick”      16. 103 to 81!       17. The California Tour      18. “Veni! Vidi!! Vici!!!”      19. 1870: Improving on Perfection      20. The Battle of Brooklyn: “Though Beaten, Not Disgraced”      21. The Face of Mortality      22. After the Fall      23. “Not a Porkopolian Has Heart Enough Left to Tell of the Defeat”      24. The Dye in the Stockings Begins to Fade      25. The Death of a Base Ball Club      26. A New City, a New League      27. “A Remarkable Band of Ball Players”      Epilogue      Notes      Bibliography      Index     

About the Author :
Attorney Stephen D. Guschov has taught a “Baseball and the Law” course at the Massachusetts School of Law in Andover, and has written for Boston Baseball. He lives in Maitland, Florida.

Review :
“a valuable resource for early baseball historians...recommended for all levels”—Choice; “intimately documents the personalities, triumphs, defeats and final breakup of this early baseball dynasty”—Library Journal; “helpful...clear...very engaging”—Ohio Valley History; “covers the subject exhaustively…a convenient one-volume treatment”—Nineteenth Century Notes.