The Civil War helped popularize baseball. Prior to the Civil War, baseball was mainly played in northeastern cities, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and others.
Soldiers on both sides of the war often played baseball when there was a lull in the fighting, encouraged by commanders who felt the physical activity kept the soldiers fit and out of trouble.
After the war, veterans returned to their hometowns, everything from large cities to small towns, and introduced the sport, making baseball a national game.
There was a major post war boom. Almost every city and town had a team that represented civic pride, like high school football today. Many of the teams were sponsored by athletic associations or businesses, making the sport somewhat semipro.
The Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional team in 1869, recruiting the best players from throughout the country.
The Red Stockings were led by the Wright brothers, Harry and George, not Orville and Wilbur. Harry was the manager and his younger brother George the star shortstop who batted .633 with 49 homers in 57 games in 1869.
Traveling the country and taking on all comers, the Red Stockings were undefeated (57-0) in 1869. The win streak reached 81 before an extra inning loss to the Brooklyn Athletics in 1870.
The popularity of the Red Stockings led to the formation of the first professional league. The National Association lasted five years before being replaced by the National League in 1876.
Cincinnati was not a part of the National Association. Some of the team's star players joined the Boston Red Stockings, which dominated the National Association with four straight pennants (1872-75). In 1875, Boston went 71-8 for the best ever winning percentage of .884.
The National was the only major league for six years until the American Association became the second league in 1882. Beginning in 1884, there was a championship series between National League and American Association winners, a forerunner of the World Series.
One of the sport's great stories was about Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn for the National League champion Providence Grays in 1884.
For the first half of the season, Radbourn shared pitching duties with Charlie Sweeney. But when Sweeney left the team, Radbourn was the Grays' only pitcher. He pitched every inning of every game the rest of the season, finishing with a 60-12 record in 679 innings, with 441 strikeouts.
Providence played American Association champion New York Metropolitans in the championship series. It was supposed to be best-of-seven, but after the Grays easily won three games, the Metropolitans quit. Radbourn did not allow an earned run in the three games.
There were three leagues in 1890 when players unhappy with their treatment formed the Players League. With three leagues and in some cases three teams in the same cities, teams were hurting at the gate. The Players League went out of business after one year and the American Association ceased to exist as a major league. For a decade, the National was the only major league until the American League began in 1901 with teams in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee.
AL President Ban Johnson wanted to have a team in New York, but the Giants’ owner was a Tammany Hall politician and the AL could not get zoning to build a stadium.
Milwaukee moved to St. Louis as the Browns in 1902 and Baltimore to New York in 1903 as the Highlanders (later the Yankees) when the league was able to build a stadium.
For the next 50 years, major league baseball had the same 16 teams on the same 11 cities, including three teams in New York and two each in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and St. Louis.
That all changed in the 1950s when the Braves moved from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953, the St. Louis Browns to Baltimore as the Orioles in 1954, the A’s from Philadelphia to Kansas City in 1955. The most important move came in 1958, the Dodgers and Giants to Los Angeles and San Francisco, bringing major league baseball to the West Coast.
