The Cincinnati 20-somethings
The traveling team to end all traveling teams, the original Cincinnati Red Stockings were famous in the late 1860s and they are famous today. Considered by MLB to be its forebear as the first professional baseball club, the Red Stockings were once honored on each Opening Day. Last season, every major leaguer wore a patch commemorating the 150th anniversary of the 1869 Red Stockings’ amazing undefeated season. Baseball fans who know nothing else about 19th century baseball can tell you who Harry and George Wright were, and many more remember the Red Stockings’ undefeated streak and their cross-country tours. But there is a key fact about the Red Stockings that has been largely forgotten — their youth.
In modern baseball terminology Harry Wright served the Cincinnati Red Stockings as manager, scout, strength coach, pitching coach, batting coach, bench coach, assistant GM, traveling secretary, VP of baseball operations, head of analytics, centerfielder — and their entire bullpen.
The Red Stockings were young by design. Before the first professional leagues, the top East Coast baseball clubs barnstormed, scheduling their own cross-country tours and paying for them by charging admission to games against local opponents (as well as betting on themselves — usually to win, but that is another topic). The late 1860s Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first western club to return the favor by touring the east. They were built for the road, which meant long, exhausting trips by steamboat and rail. The 1869 Red Stockings were the first to play on both coasts in the same season; they also traveled to the South and throughout the Midwest.
The Red Stockings prepared themselves by following a state-of-the-art, pre-season workout regimen designed by Harry Wright, the son of a cricket pro, who was on the cutting edge of the science of physical training. Stamina was paramount in the days before gloves, facemasks, elbow guards, 25-man rosters, modern pharmaceuticals, and Tommy John surgery. Playing captain (the job of manager did not yet exist) Harry Wright also made sure to have youth on his side. How young were Wright’s Red Stockings? A comparable club in terms of competitive level, the 1869 Brooklyn Atlantics started a 33 year-old shortstop, a 29 year-old third baseman, a 27 year-old and two 26 year-olds; their youngest regular player was 24. The 1869 Red Stockings’ roster included three 21-year-olds, two 22-year-olds, a 23-year-old, and a 19-year-old. 27-year-old pitcher Asa Brainard was the oldest man on the club except for Wright himself, who was 34. Harry Wright occasionally relieved Brainard; other than that, the Red Stockings’ lineup was virtually the same, day in and day out, for months on end. In October 1868 the club lost to the Atlantics. Their next loss came to the same club in June 1870 — 84 games later.
21 year-old Cal McVey in 1871. His father had to co-sign his first contract with the Cincinnati Red Stockings because he was a minor. He starred for the undefeated 1869 club as a 19 year-old.
