Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The current franchise started play as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, playing exhibition games in 1881 and then, in 1882, becoming a charter member of the American Association. (The A.A. was a 19th-century major baseball league.) The team has been based in Cincinnati for its entire history. [1] [2] [3]
Sources tie the "ancestry" of the current franchise to 1869 with the creation of the first-ever professional baseball team, also called the Cincinnati Red Stockings but considered to be a separate franchise. In 1876, as the Cincinnati Reds, this franchise became a charter member of the National League, where they played through the 1879 season. [4] In 1880, another Cincinnati team, the Stars, played a single season in the National League. [5]