Description: This picture shows the 1939 National League champion, the Cincinnati Reds team. Managed by Bill McKechnie, the Reds finished the regular season with a record of 97 wins and 57 loses, 4.5 games ahead of the second-place St. Louis Cardinals. The 1939 team lost the World Series to the New York Yankees but came back in 1940 to win the world championship by defeating the Detroit Tigers. Professional baseball originated in Cincinnati, Ohio. The first game played by a team where all players were professionals and received pay for playing occurred on June 1, 1869, when the Cincinnati Red Stockings defeated the Mansfield Independents, an amateur club. The Red Stockings won by a score of 48-14. The salary for the entire Cincinnati team during the 1869 season was eleven thousand dollars. The Red Stockings went on to win 130 consecutive games during 1869 and early 1870, not losing a game until June 14, 1870. Baseball historians challenge the number of games because a majority of them involved amateur clubs losing to the Red Stockings. Nevertheless, the club had fifty-seven straight victories against other highly-ranked and professional or semi-professional teams. The Reds proved to be a leading contender during its first several decades of existence. In 1876, the team was one of the original members of the National League, but this organization expelled the club in 1880 for selling beer at the team's games. The Reds returned to the National League after a decade's absence. In 1919 the Cincinnati Reds won its first World Series, defeating the Chicago White Sox five games to three in a best of nine series. Several White Sox players eventually admitted to throwing the series to the Reds, but Reds outfielder Edd Roush claimed, "One thing that's always overlooked in this whole mess is that we could have beaten them no matter the circumstances. The 1919 Cincinnati Reds were better!" During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, the Reds continued to be playoff contenders. The club won National League pennant and the World Series in 1940. The Cincinnati Reds also participated in the first televised baseball game in 1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06024
Subjects: Cincinnati Reds (Baseball team); Baseball--Ohio--Cincinnati--History; Baseball--History; Cincinnati Red Stockings (Baseball team); Cultural Ohio--Ohio Sports
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)