About Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the National League Central Division and were a charter member of the American Association in 1881 before joining the NL in 1890.
The Reds played in the NL West division from 1969 to 1993, before joining the Central division in 1994. For several years in the 1970s, they were considered the most dominant team in baseball, most notably winning the 1975 and 1976 World Series; the team was colloquially known as the "Big Red Machine" during this time, and it included Hall of Fame members Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Tony Pérez, as well as the controversial Pete Rose, the all-time hits leader in Major League Baseball. Overall, the Reds have won five World Series championships, nine NL pennants, one AA pennant and 10 division titles. The team plays its home games at Great American Ball Park, which opened in 2003. Bob Castellini has been the CEO of the Reds since 2006. From 1882 to 2023, the Reds' overall win–loss record is 10,857–10,681–139 .
The origins of the modern Cincinnati Reds baseball team can be traced back to the expulsion from the National League of an earlier team bearing the same name. In 1876, Cincinnati became one of the charter members of the new National League , but the club ran afoul of league organizer and longtime president William Hulbert for selling beer during games and renting out its ballpark on Sundays. Both were important in enticing the city's large German population to support the team. While Hulbert made clear his distaste for both beer and Sunday baseball at the founding of the league, neither practice was against league rules at the time. On October 6, 1880, however, seven of the eight team owners adopted a pledge to ban both beer and Sunday baseball at the regular league meeting in December. Only Cincinnati president W. H. Kennett refused to sign the pledge, so the other owners preemptively expelled Cincinnati from the league for violating the new rules even though they were not yet in effect.
Cincinnati's expulsion incensed Cincinnati Enquirer sports editor O. P. Caylor, who made two attempts to form a new league on behalf of the receivers for the now-bankrupt Reds franchise. When these attempts failed, he formed a new independent ball club known as the Red Stockings in the spring of 1881 and brought the team to St. Louis for a weekend exhibition. The Reds' first game was a 12–3 victory over the St. Louis club. After the 1881 series proved successful, Caylor and former Reds president Justus Thorner received an invitation from Philadelphia businessman Horace Phillips to attend a meeting of several clubs in Pittsburgh, planning to establish a new league to compete with the NL. Upon arriving, however, Caylor and Thorner found that no other owners had accepted the invitation, while even Phillips declined to attend his own meeting. By chance, the duo met former pitcher Al Pratt, who paired them with former Pittsburgh Alleghenys president H. Denny McKnight. Together, the three hatched a scheme to form a new league by sending a telegram to each of the owners who were invited to attend the meeting stating that he was the only person who did not attend, and that everyone else was enthusiastic about the new venture and eager to attend a second meeting in Cincinnati. The ploy worked, and the American Association was officially formed at the Hotel Gibson in Cincinnati. The new Reds – with Thorner now serving as president – became a charter member of the AA.
Led by the hitting of third baseman Hick Carpenter, the defense of future Hall of Fame second baseman Bid McPhee and the pitching of 40-game-winner Will White, the Reds won the inaugural AA pennant in 1882. With the establishment of the Union Association in 1884, Thorner left the club to finance the Cincinnati Outlaw Reds and managed to acquire the lease on the Reds' Bank Street Grounds playing field, forcing new president Aaron Stern to relocate three blocks away to the hastily built League Park. The club never placed higher than second or lower than fifth for the rest of its tenure in the American Association.
The Cincinnati Red Stockings left the American Association on November 14, 1889, and joined the National League along with the Brooklyn Bridegrooms after a dispute with St. Louis Browns owner Chris von der Ahe over the selection of a new league president. The National League was happy to accept the teams in part due to the emergence of the new Player's League, an early failed attempt to break the reserve clause in baseball that threatened both existing leagues. Because the National League decided to expand while the American Association was weakening, the team accepted an invitation to join the National League. After shortening their name to the Reds, the team wandered through the 1890s, signing local stars and aging veterans. During this time, the team never finished above third place and never closer than .mw-parser-output .frac.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den.mw-parser-output .frac .den.mw-parser-output .sr-only;clip-path:polygon;height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}10+1⁄2 games to first .
Map & Directions To Venue
