MEET THE REDS nce upon a time every town in the country was a baseball town Over the years other sports and teams competed with baseball for the attention of fans But in Cincinnati Ohio baseball is still king Every spring the city buzzes with excitement as the Reds prepare for Opening Day Every summer the fans stream into the ballpark hoping their team will be playing for a championship that fall Players on the Reds are always excited to put on the team's uniform They know that they will hear cheers for all their hard work That s especially true when the Reds do the little things that fans in other cities might not even notice This book tells the story of the Reds They look for players with modern skills who make an old fashioned effort The Reds are proud of their history but they keep an eye on the future In other words the Reds make sure that baseball will always be Cincinnati's favorite game Brandon Phillips gets a warm welcome from teammates after scoring the winning run in a 2011
GLORY DAS H n the years after the Civil War baseball became a wildly popular sport in the United States Everyone wanted to learn about the game watch it and play it The best players were professionals The first all professional team took the Oificates or field in Cincinnati in 1869 The club was called the Red Stockings They weren't part of an organized league Instead the Red H A Stockings traveled from city to city to play If any team that challenged them Although C that club went out of business Cincinnati Goriwal 3 Series and its fans still see the city as the place where Elise RIL GD A pro baseball got its start Today s Reds are connected to the Red lo Toureux Stockings in spirit but the club actually dates back to 1882 That year a new team called the Red Stockings began play in Cincinnati That club was a member of a league known as the American Association AA The stars of
racker Jack the Red Stockings were pitcher Will White BALL PLAYERS and second baseman Bid McPhee They led Cincinnati to its first AA championship White was the first player to wear glasses on the field McPhee was one of the last players to field without a mitt In 1890 the team joined the National League NL and changed its name to the Reds Cincinnati won its first pennant in LaRoh oneiman Marion 1919 That team was led by hitters Edd Roush Heinie Groh and Jake Daubert The pitching staff featured Hod Eller Slim Sallee and Adolfo Luque Luque was one of baseball s first Latino stars The Reds won the pennant again in 1939 and 1940 Those clubs had great pitching Bucky Walters and Paul Derringer were two of the best starters in baseball Ernie Lombardi and Frank McCormick provided power at the plate A decade later the Reds developed into one of baseball s most dangerous offensive clubs The Cincinnati teams of the 1950s were known for power hitters such as Frank Robinson Gus Bell Wally Post and Ted Kluszewski However it was the scrappy and tenacious 1961 club that brought Cincinnati its LEFT A scorecard from an 1888 game shows Jim Keenan the team's catcher ABOVE Slugger Heinie Groh supplied the power for the 1919
