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.
Joseph Start, nicknamed "Old Reliable", was one of the most durable regulars of baseball's earliest era, and one of the top first basemen of his time. He began his playing career in 1859, before the formation of organized leagues and before ballplayers received payment for their services. He continued to play regularly until 1886, when he was 43. Start's career spanned countless innovations that transformed the game in fundamental ways, but he adjusted and continued to play at a high level for almost three decades. Baseball historian Bill Ryczek said that Start "was the last of the pre–Civil War players to hang up his cleats."
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.
The Hartfords were a 19th-century baseball team. The team was based in Hartford, Connecticut.
Union Grounds was a baseball park located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. The grounds opened in 1862, its inaugural match being played on May 15. It was the first baseball park enclosed entirely by a fence, thereby allowing proprietor William Cammeyer or his tenant to charge admission. This permitted paying customers to watch the games from benches in a stand while non-paying spectators could only watch from embankments outside the grounds.
The Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia was a prominent National Association, and later National League, professional baseball team that played in the second half of the 19th century.
The Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn was baseball's first champion and its first dynasty. The team was also the first baseball club to visit the White House in 1865 at the invitation of President Andrew Johnson.
The Fort Wayne Kekiongas were a professional baseball team, notable for winning the first professional league game on May 4, 1871. Though based in Fort Wayne, they were usually listed in game reports as simply "Kekionga" or "the Kekiongas", per the style of the day. "Fort Wayne Kekiongas" is modern nomenclature.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1875 throughout the world.
Robert T. Mathews was an American right-handed professional baseball pitcher who played in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, the National League of Major League Baseball and the American Association for twenty years beginning in the late 1860s. He is credited as being one of the inventors of the spitball pitch, in each of three major leagues. which was rediscovered or reintroduced to the major leagues after he died. He is also credited with the first legal pitch which broke away from the batter. He is listed at 5 feet 5 inches tall and 140 pounds, which is small for a pro athlete even in his time, when the average height of an American male in the mid-19th century was 5 foot 7.
Brooklyn has an active sports scene that spans over a hundred years. The borough is home of the Barclays Center and the National Basketball Association's Brooklyn Nets, and for many decades was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers of Major League Baseball before they moved to Los Angeles in 1957.
The Cincinnati Reds, also known as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, were a professional baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio that played from 1875–1879. The club predated the National League of which it became a charter member.
Willard Elmer White was an American professional baseball player. He served primarily as an outfielder but also as a catcher in 1871 with the Cleveland Forest Citys of the National Association. Although he broke his arm running into a fence during a game on June 22, he played 15 of Cleveland's 29 games in their inaugural season, batting .257. However, he died of tuberculosis in March 1872, becoming the first player from a professional baseball league to die. White was the cousin of Deacon White and Will White.
The New York Mutuals base ball team was one of only three teams to have played in all five seasons of the National Association's existence (1871–75). In 1873, the team finished the season in fourth place with 29 wins and 24 losses, eleven games behind pennant-winning Boston Red Stockings. They won 22 out of 31 home games, played at Union Grounds in Brooklyn, and 7 of 22 away from home. The team batting average was .281, which is the fifth-best in the NA. They led the league in fewest strikeouts with 22 and fewest opponent runs.
William H. Craver was an American Major League Baseball player from Troy, New York who played mainly as a middle infielder, but did play many games at catcher as well during his seven-year career. He played for seven different teams, in two leagues. He was later expelled from the Major Leagues in the infamous Louisville gambling scandal in 1877.
Michael Henry McGeary was an American professional baseball player whose career spanned from 1871 to 1882. He played 11 seasons in Major League Baseball, playing principally as an infielder and catcher, for seven different major league clubs: the Troy Haymakers (1870–1871), the Philadelphia Athletics (NA) (1872–1874), the Philadelphia White Stockings (1875), the St. Louis Brown Stockings (1876–1877), the Providence Grays (1879–1880), the Cleveland Blues (1880–1881) and the Detroit Wolverines (1882). Three of those clubs, the Philadelphia White Stockings, Providence Grays and Cleveland Blues, also employed him as player-manager.
David Daniel Eggler was a Major League Baseball center fielder. He was born in Brooklyn, New York.
Charles Hodes was an American professional baseball player who played as a catcher, infielder, and outfielder in the National Association for three seasons from 1871 to 1874. A Brooklyn native, Hodes played one season each for the Chicago White Stockings, Troy Haymakers, and Brooklyn Atlantics. He had a career batting average of .231 in 63 total games before dying from tuberculosis in 1875.
The New York Mutuals baseball club, established 1859, played five seasons in the National Association, 1871–1875, and one in the National League, 1876. Here is a list of all their players in regular season games beginning 1871.
