Episode 1 of 2
First Professional Game
- When
- May 4, 1869
- Where
- Cincinnati
The Cincinnati Red Stockings played their first professional game on May 4, 1869, defeating the Great Westerns of Cincinnati 45-9.
This match marked the beginning of the first fully professional baseball season. The team, organized by Harry Wright and George Ellard, featured ten salaried players. The victory against the Great Westerns established the team's dominance in the early professional era.
Sources
- Cincinnati Red Stockings Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-29
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.