The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP) of 1871–1875, the NL is sometimes called the Senior Circuit, in contrast to MLB's other league, the American League, which was founded 25 years later and is called the "Junior Circuit". Both leagues currently have 15 teams.
The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), often known simply as the National Association (NA), was the first fully-professional sports league in baseball. The NA was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 season. It succeeded and incorporated several professional clubs from the previous National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) of 1857–1870, sometimes called "the amateur Association". In turn, several NA clubs created the succeeding National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, which joined with the American League of Professional Base Ball Clubs to form Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1903.
23rd Street Grounds, also known as State Street Grounds and 23rd Street Park, and sometimes spelled out as Twenty-third Street Grounds, was a ballpark in Chicago, in what is now the Chinatown district. In this ballpark, the Chicago White Stockings played baseball from 1874 to 1877, the first two years in the National Association and the latter two in the National League.
Union Base-Ball Grounds was a baseball park located in Chicago. The park was "very visibly downtown", its small block bounded on the west by Michigan Avenue, on the north by Randolph Street, and on the east by railroad tracks and the lake shore, which was then much closer than it is today. The site is now part of Millennium Park.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1882 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1887 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1886 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1885 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1884 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1881 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1880 throughout the world.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1879 throughout the world.
The Chicago Browns/Pittsburgh Stogies were a short-lived professional baseball team in the Union Association of 1884. They were to battle the Chicago White Stockings, of the National League, for the Chicago baseball market; however, the Browns lost that battle to the White Stockings. After a Baltimore mattress maker gave the club a degree of financial support, the Browns then tried to entice the White Stockings' Larry Corcoran, one of the 1880s top pitchers, to join the team. However, the club did not succeed in doing so. The Chicago Browns disbanded after a game on August 22, 1884. The club then moved to Pittsburgh and became the Stogies, which disbanded after a game played on September 18, 1884. Many of the club's players then joined the Baltimore Monumentals. Altogether, they won 41 games, lost 50, and tied 2, finishing sixth in the twelve-team league.
Ogden Park, also known as Ogden Skating Park, was a recreational facility on the near north side of Chicago around the 1860s and 1870s. It was home to the Ogden Skating Club. It was on a piece of land east of where Ontario Street T-ed into Michigan Avenue. Today's Ontario Street continues several blocks eastward, through the site of that old park.
The 1871 Chicago White Stockings season was the second season of the Chicago White Stockings franchise, the first in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players and the first at Union Base-Ball Grounds.
The 1874 Chicago White Stockings season was the 3rd season of the Chicago White Stockings franchise, the 2nd in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players and the 1st at 23rd Street Grounds. The White Stockings returned to the league in 1874 after taking two years to recover from the chaos of the Great Chicago Fire. They opened their season on Wednesday May 13 hosting the Philadelphia Athletics and shut them out 4 to 0. They finished fifth in the National Association with a record of 28–31.
White Sox primarily refers to the Chicago White Sox, a professional baseball team.
The St. Louis Cardinals, a professional baseball franchise based in St. Louis, Missouri, compete in the National League (NL) of Major League Baseball (MLB). As the game of baseball garnered interest in the United States in the 19th century, professional baseball in St. Louis became rooted chiefly in one disestablished Major League club – named the Brown Stockings, the same as the Cardinals' earliest name – which is loosely connected, but does not fall within the scope of, today's Cardinals. The Brown Stockings became St. Louis' first fully professional baseball club when they gained accession in the National Association (NA) in 1875. However, the NA folded after that season. That winter, with five other former NA teams, St. Louis established a new, eight-team league called the National League (NL) and began play the next season. Despite early success, Brown Stocking players were found to be connected to game fixing scandals, which forced bankruptcy and the club's expulsion from the NL. This scandal also abrogated their professional status but some members maintained play as a semi-professional team, primarily operated by outfielder Ned Cuthbert, until 1881.
