Cincinnati Red Stockings

This club was formed after the National League expelled Cincinnati for selling beer and opening on Sundays, and it won the first American Association pennant in 1882 — the Association having been founded on exactly those two freedoms. Eight seasons at 549-396, a rate of .581 that only a handful of clubs have bettered.

Its strongest year was 1884, 68 wins and 41 losses. The worst is 1886, at 65-73, and the club had no losing season worse than that, which for the era is unusual. It returned to the National League in 1890 and is the club that plays in Cincinnati now.

One Hall of Famer played here, Bid McPhee, who played second base for eighteen seasons in Cincinnati under both leagues and did it bare-handed until 1896, by which time everyone else had taken a glove. Home was the Bank Street Grounds and then League Park.