1.
Dodger Stadium
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Opened 55 years ago on April 10,1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of $23 million, financed by private sources. Often referred to as a ballpark, the stadium has seen 12 no-hitters. The stadium hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1980 and it also hosted the semifinals and finals of the 2009 and 2017 World Baseball Classics. It also hosted exhibition baseball during the 1984 Summer Olympics, the stadium hosted a soccer tournament on August 3,2013 featuring four clubs, the hometown team Los Angeles Galaxy, and European giants Real Madrid, Everton, and Juventus. For the first time at Dodger Stadium, the Los Angeles Kings, the land for Dodger Stadium was purchased from local owners and inhabitants in the early 1950s by the city of Los Angeles using eminent domain with funds from the Federal Housing Act of 1949. Before construction could begin on the project, the local political climate changed greatly when Norris Poulson was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1953. Proposed public housing such as Elysian Park Heights lost most of their support as they became associated with socialist ideals. It was not until June 3,1958, when Los Angeles voters approved a Taxpayers Committee for Yes on Baseball referendum, Los Angeles-based Mike Davis, in his seminal work on the city, City of Quartz, describes the process of gradually convincing Chavez Ravine homeowners to sell. With nearly all of the original Spanish-speaking homeowners initially unwilling to sell, developers resorted to offering immediate cash payments, ground was broken for Dodger Stadium on September 17,1959. The top of local ridges were removed and the soil was used to fill in Sulfur and Cemetery Ravines to provide a surface for a parking lot. A local elementary school was simply buried and sits beneath the parking lot northwest of third base, a total of 8 million cubic yards of earth were moved in the process of building the stadium. 21,000 precast concrete units, some weighing as much as 32 tons, were fabricated onsite, the stadium was originally designed to be expandable to 85,000 seats by expanding the upper decks over the outfield pavilions, the Dodgers have never pursued such a project. Dodger Stadium was also the home of the Los Angeles Angels from 1962 through 1965, to avoid constantly referring to their landlords, the Angels called the park Chavez Ravine Stadium, after the geographic feature in which the stadium sits. At the conclusion of the 2005 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers made major renovations during the subsequent off-season, the largest of these improvements was the replacement of nearly all the seats in the stadium. The seats that were removed had been in use since 1975 and helped give the stadium its unique space age feel with a palette of bright yellow, orange, blue. The new seats are in the original 1962 color scheme consisting of yellow, light orange, turquoise,2,000 pairs of seats were made available for purchase at $250, with the proceeds going to charity. The baseline seating sections have been converted into retro-style box seating, adding leg room, other repairs were made to the concrete structure of the stadium. These improvements mark the second phase of an improvement plan for Dodger Stadium
2.
Baseball
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Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants
3.
Minor League Baseball
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All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses. Most are members of the organization known as Minor League Baseball. Several leagues, known as independent baseball leagues, do not have any links to Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball teams may enter into a PDC for a two- or four-year term. At the expiration of a PDC term, teams may renew their affiliation, or sign new PDCs with different clubs, though many relationships are renewed and endure for extended time periods. Minor League teams that are owned directly by the major league club do not have PDCs with each other and are not part of the reaffiliation shuffles that occur every other year, several more independent leagues operate in the United States and Canada. The earliest professional baseball association, the National Association of 1871 to 1875 and this system proved unworkable, however, as there was no way to ensure competitive balance, and financially unsound clubs often failed in midseason. This problem was solved in 1876 with the formation of the National League, with a membership which excluded less competitive. Professional clubs outside the National League responded by forming regional associations of their own, there was a series of ad hoc groupings, such as the New England Association of 1877 and the Eastern Championship Association of 1881. These were loose groups of independent clubs which agreed to play a series of games for a championship pennant, the first minor league is traditionally considered to be the Northwestern League of 1883 to 1884. Unlike the earlier minor associations, it was conceived as a permanent organization and it also, along with the National League and the American Association, was a party to the National Agreement of 1883. Included in this was the agreement to respect the reserve lists of clubs in each league, teams in the National League and the American Association could only reserve players who had been paid at least $1000. Northwest League teams could reserve players paid merely $750, implicitly establishing the division into major and minor leagues, over the next two decades, more minor leagues signed various versions of the National Agreement. Eventually, the minor leagues joined together to negotiate jointly, in the late 1890s, the Western League run by the fiery Ban Johnson decided to challenge the National Leagues position. Representatives of the different minor leagues met at the Leland Hotel in Chicago on September 5,1901, in response to the National–American battle, they agreed to form the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, called the NAPBL, or NA for short. The purpose of the NA at the time was to maintain the independence of the leagues involved, several did not sign the agreement and continued to work independently. Powers was made the first president of the NAPBL, whose offices were established in Auburn, in 1903, the conflict between the American and National Leagues ended in the National Agreement of 1903. The NAPBL became involved in the stages of the negotiations to develop rules for the acquisition of players from their leagues by the National
4.
Spring training
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Practices andthe start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, Spring training typically starts in mid-February and continues until just before Opening Day of the regular season, traditionally the first week of April. In some years, teams not scheduled to play on Opening Day will play spring training games that day, pitchers and catchers report to spring training first because pitchers benefit from a longer training period. A few days later, position players arrive and team practice begins, Spring training by major league teams in sites other than their regular season game sites first became popular in the 1890s and by 1910 was in wide use. Hot Springs, Arkansas has been called the birthplace of Spring Training baseball. The location of Hot Springs and the concept of getting the players ready for the season was the brainchild of Chicago White Stockings team President Albert Spalding. In 1886, the White Stockings traveled to Hot Springs to prepare for the upcoming season, practicing at the Hot Springs Baseball Grounds, the White Stockings had a successful season and other teams took notice and began holding spring training in Hot Springs. The Cleveland Spiders, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers, Whittington Park/Ban Johnson Park, Majestic Park and Fogel Field were all built in Hot Springs to host Major League teams. Famously, a young pitcher named Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox was playing a game at first base on St. Patricks Day,1918. Ruth would hit two home runs that day in Hot Springs, and the second was a 573-foot shot that landed across the street from Whittington Park in a pond of the Arkansas Alligator Farm, soon he was playing the field more often. The First Boys of Spring is a 2015 documentary about Hot Springs Spring Training, the film was narrated by area native, actor Billy Bob Thornton, and produced by filmmaker Larry Foley. The documentary began airing nationally on the MLB Network in February,2016. The Detroit Tigers are credited with being the first team to conduct spring training camp in Arizona and they trained in Phoenix at Riverside Park at Central Avenue and the Salt River in 1929. The Philadelphia Phillies were the first of the current major-league teams to train in Florida, Spring training in Florida began in earnest in 1913, when the Chicago Cubs played in Tampa, and the Cleveland Indians in Pensacola. One year later, two teams moved to Florida for spring training, the real start of the Grapefruit League. Since 2010, major league teams have been divided during spring training. All but six of the league teams have gone to spring training in Florida at one time or another. Many of the most famous players in history have called Florida home for 4–6 weeks every spring. According to the autobiography of former Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck, in 1947, Veeck was the owner of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers and the team trained in Ocala, Florida
5.
Findlay Market
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Findlay Market in historic Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio, is the states oldest continuously operated public market. The Findlay Market Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 5,1972, the market is the last remaining of the nine that once served Cincinnati. Findlay Market was founded in 1852, on donated by the estate of General James Findlay. Built with the new iron framework technology, this was one of the earliest structures in the nation in which technique was used. The market bell from Pearl Street Market, Cincinnatis first market house, the market is located north of downtown Cincinnati in Over-the-Rhine, an historic neighborhood known for its dense concentration of German architecture. Open year-round, Tuesday through Sunday, Findlay Market has more than three dozen indoor merchants selling meat, fish, poultry, produce, flowers, cheese, deli. On Saturdays and Sundays from March to December, the Market hosts a market and other outdoor vendors, street performers. The Findlay Market Opening Day Parade for the Cincinnati Reds is an annual Cincinnati tradition, Findlay Market is a gathering place for people from all over the city. It routinely attracts crowds that are socially, economically, racially, the Findlay Market district is a center of economic activity in Over-the-Rhine. Cincinnati City Council named The Corporation for Findlay Market its Preferred Developer for 39 city-owned properties near the market in June 2006, in 2010, the market became 100% occupied and continues to grow. In 2004, the City of Cincinnati completed a $16 million renovation of the market, johnny Cash visits Findlay Market in a scene of the movie The Pride of Jesse Hallam. Findlay Market is mentioned in Oh, Cincinnati, a song by the local band The Seedy Seeds, Findlay Market official website – market history and vendor information
6.
Fountain Square, Cincinnati
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Fountain Square is a city square in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1871, it was renovated in 1971 and 2005 and currently features many shops, restaurants, hotels, an Indian mound stood at the present site of Fountain Square when the first white settlers arrived. Fountain Square has been the center of Cincinnati since 1871. The square, which replaced a butchers market, was a gift from Henry Probasco in memory of Tyler Davidson, Probasco traveled to Munich and commissioned a bronze allegorical fountain from Ferdinand von Miller named The Genius of Water. Originally, the square occupied an island in the middle of Fifth Street with buildings to the north and south. It is used for lunch-breaks, rallies, and other gatherings, in addition to the renovations, many buildings in and around the Fountain Square district are currently being renovated and redesigned. The Fountain itself was restored and moved to a more central location in the square. After the death of his brother-in-law and business partner Tyler Davidson, Cincinnati businessman Henry Probasco went to Munich, many years before, artist August von Kreling had collaborated with Ferdinand von Miller at the Royal Bronze Foundry of Bavaria to design a fountain. Probasco requested the addition of four figures with animals that would act as drinking fountains, Fountain Square has many events all through the week including speeches, games, movies, concerts, giveaways, and festivals. The square also has many events such as Halloween on the square. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day 2010, the square featured EcoSculpt 2010, the exhibit included Atlas Recycled by Tom Tsuchiya, a sculpture made of used atlases that doubled as a recycling receptacle for plastic bottles and aluminum cans. The Fountain Square District is becoming a restaurant and entertainment hub and it contains many offices, hotels, specialty shops and restaurants. Office Fifth Third Bank Headquarters Macys, Inc
7.
Downtown Cincinnati
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Downtown Cincinnati is the central business district of Cincinnati, Ohio, and one of its 52 neighborhoods. Downtown Cincinnati is laid out on a basin on the Ohio River, Downtown Cincinnatis streets are arranged on a grid. Streets are split between the east and west by Vine Street, bridges from Downtown Cincinnati span the Ohio River across to Covington and Newport in Northern Kentucky. Often considered to be the heart of Cincinnati, Fountain Square is located in the center of the Central Business District, the 1871 dedicated Tyler Davidson Fountain stands prominently on the often busy city square. Other city parks located Downtown are Lytle Park and Piatt Park, the Backstage District that sprang up around the Aronoff Center contains nightlife and dining options. All but one of the twenty-five tallest buildings in Cincinnati are located in Downtown Cincinnati, the Carew Tower has a public observation deck on the forty-ninth floor. Since 1971, the Cincinnati Skywalk has connected buildings throughout downtown via a series of primarily indoor, the Skywalk was officially completed as a 1.3 mile contiguous path in 1997, but has since fallen into disfavor by city leaders, and some sections have been removed. Downtown Cincinnati is an residential area with former commercial space, such as Park Place at Lytle. Museums downtown include the high-rise Contemporary Arts Center, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the Banks is a waterfront mixed-use development hosting bars and restaurants. It is especially crowded following games at the adjacent Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ball Park, Downtown has long been the economic hub of Cincinnati. In the mid-nineteenth century 16 of the citys 24 banks were located on Third Street near the busy Public Landing river port, towards the end of the nineteenth century, the center of business activity moved to Fourth Street, closer to where it remains today. The Duke Energy Convention Center is the center of Cincinnati. Opened in 1968, it offers 750,000 square feet of meeting space, the historic Cincinnati City Hall is located downtown on Plum Street. The Hamilton County Courthouse is connected to the Hamilton County Justice Center via a skybridge, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the daily citywide newspaper, has its headquarters downtown, as does the alternative newspaper Cincinnati CityBeat. Downtown is a hub for the entire region. Downtown is served by Fort Washington Way which connects interstates 71 and 75 with Route 50, southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority operates public transportation with its transit hub at Government Square. The Cincinnati streetcars is a project to restore streetcar service to the city. Mount Adams, Cincinnati Over-the-Rhine Downtown Residents Council
8.
Cincinnati
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Cincinnati is a city in the U. S. state of Ohio that serves as county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the side of the confluence of the Licking with the Ohio River. With a population of 298,550, Cincinnati is the third-largest city in Ohio and its metropolitan statistical area is the 28th-largest in the United States and the largest centered in Ohio. The city is part of the larger Cincinnati–Middletown–Wilmington combined statistical area. In the 19th century, Cincinnati was an American boomtown in the heart of the country, it rivaled the larger cities in size. Throughout much of the 19th century, it was listed among the top 10 U. S and it was by far the largest city in the west. By the end of the 19th century, with the shift from steamboats to railroads drawing off freight shipping, trade patterns had altered and Cincinnatis growth slowed considerably. Cincinnati is home to two sports teams, the Cincinnati Reds, the oldest franchise in Major League Baseball. The University of Cincinnati, founded in 1819, is one of the 50 largest in the United States, Cincinnati is known for its historic architecture. In the late 1800s, Cincinnati was commonly referred to as Paris of America, due mainly to such ambitious projects as the Music Hall, Cincinnatian Hotel. The original surveyor, John Filson, named it Losantiville, in 1790, Arthur St. Ethnic Germans were among the early settlers, migrating from Pennsylvania and the backcountry of Virginia and Tennessee. General David Ziegler succeeded General St. Clair in command at Fort Washington, after the conclusion of the Northwest Indian Wars and removal of Native Americans to the west, he was elected as the mayor of Cincinnati in 1802. Cincinnati was incorporated as a city in 1819, exporting pork products and hay, it became a center of pork processing in the region. From 1810 to 1830 its population tripled, from 9,642 to 24,831. Completion of the Miami and Erie Canal in 1827 to Middletown, Ohio further stimulated businesses, the city had a labor shortage until large waves of immigration by Irish and Germans in the late 1840s. The city grew rapidly over the two decades, reaching 115,000 persons by 1850. Construction on the Miami and Erie Canal began on July 21,1825, the first section of the canal was opened for business in 1827. In 1827, the canal connected Cincinnati to nearby Middletown, by 1840, during this period of rapid expansion and prominence, residents of Cincinnati began referring to the city as the Queen City
9.
Cincinnati Red Stockings
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The Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869 were baseballs first openly all-professional team, with ten salaried players. Major League Baseball recognized those events officially by sponsoring a centennial of professional baseball in 1969 and they also established a particular color, red, as the color of Cincinnati, and they provide the ultimate origin for the use of Red Sox in Boston. A few years later Goshorn earned international fame as Director-General of the Centennial Exposition held 1876 in Philadelphia, Ellard also led the Union Cricket Club, and the relationship between them proved decisive for the baseball clubs success. After playing four matches that summer, Cincinnati joined the NABBP for 1867, George Ellards son says that a great number of the cricket club members joined and so the team was greatly strengthened and interest in baseball gained a new impetus. The team was soon nicknamed Red Stockings in reference to the feature of the uniforms designed by Ellard. Harry Wright had migrated from New York in 1866 for a job as club pro at the Union Cricket Club, next year he picked up similar baseball duties, but the lingo is commonly stretched to call him a baseball manager from that time. His first team may have been local to a man, the first team won 16 matches with regional opponents, losing only to the touring Nationals from Washington. As for most hosts on that tour, it was a bad loss on the scorecard but a one for Cincinnati, the players, the club, the fans. Everyone learned advanced points of play and, from their different perspectives, about half of the 1868 Red Stockings were eastern imports, presumably compensated somehow. The two leading batsmen, John Hatfield and Fred Waterman arrived from the New York Mutuals, one of the strongest teams anywhere, asa Brainard had been the Brooklyn Excelsiors regular pitcher for four seasons, succeeded in 1867 by Candy Cummings. Catcher Doug Allison was from the Geary club of Philadelphia, one of the clubs in that city. There was one local recruit, too, from the rival Buckeye club, Harry Wright remained the first pitcher, sharing that position and second base with Brainard, and three other incumbents remained in the outfield and at shortstop. The 1868 team played a schedule including a late eastern tour, once again dominating the western teams. When the NABBP permitted professional members for 1869, Harry Wright and probably George Ellard organized a professional team, ten men on salary for eight months. Wright played center field and coordinated the defense, a novelty from any position. Younger brother and shortstop George Wright, new to the team in 1869, was its best player, the professional Cincinnati Red Stockings played their first game May 4,1869, with a 45-9 win over the Great Westerns of Cincinnati. The team won 57 games and lost zero, counting only matches with Association clubs and they played over 70 games counting outside teams. Its commercial tour of continental scope, visiting both Boston and San Francisco, was unprecedented and may be essentially unrepeated, the first season ended November 6 at home with the Cincinnatis beating the Mutuals of New York 17-8
10.
Cincinnati Reds
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The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League Central division. They were a member of the American Association in 1882. The Reds played in the NL West division from 1969 to 1993 and they have won five World Series titles, nine NL pennants, one AA pennant, and 10 division titles. The team plays its games at Great American Ball Park. Bob Castellini has been executive officer since 2006. The origins of the modern Cincinnati Reds can be traced to the expulsion of a team bearing that name. Both were important activities to entice the citys large German population, while Hulbert made clear his distaste for both beer and Sunday baseball at the founding of the league, neither practice was actually against league rules in those early years. On October 6,1880, however, seven of the eight team owners pledged at a league meeting to formally ban both beer and Sunday baseball at the regular league meeting that December. Only Cincinnati president W. H. Kennett refused to sign the pledge, when these attempts failed, he formed a new independent ballclub known as the Red Stockings in the Spring of 1881, and brought the team to St. Louis for a weekend exhibition. The Reds first game was a 12–3 victory over the St. Louis club, upon arriving in the city, however, Caylor and Thorner discovered that no other owners had decided to accept the invitation, with even Phillips not bothering to attend his own meeting. By chance, the duo met a former pitcher named Al Pratt, the ploy worked, and the American Association was officially formed at the Hotel Gibson in Cincinnati with the new Reds a charter member with Thorner as president. The club never placed higher than second or lower than fifth for the rest of its tenure in the American Association, the National League was happy to accept the teams in part due to the emergence of the new Players League. This new league, a failed attempt to break the reserve clause in baseball. Because the National League decided to expand while the American Association was weakening and it was also at this time that the team first shortened their name from Red Stockings to Reds. The Reds wandered through the 1890s signing local stars and aging veterans, during this time, the team never finished above third place and never closer than 10½ games. At the start of the 20th century, the Reds had hitting stars Sam Crawford, seymours.377 average in 1905 was the first individual batting crown won by a Red. In 1911, Bob Bescher stole 81 bases, which is still a team record, like the previous decade, the 1900s were not kind to the Reds, as much of the decade was spent in the leagues second division
11.
Chicago Cubs
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The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League Central division. The team plays its games at Wrigley Field, located on the citys North Side. The Cubs are one of two league teams in Chicago, the other, the Chicago White Sox, is a member of the American League Central division. The Cubs, first known as the White Stockings, was a member of the NL in 1876. The Cubs have appeared in a total of eleven World Series, the 1906 Cubs won 116 games, finishing 116–36 and posting a modern-era record winning percentage of.763, before losing the World Series to the Chicago White Sox by four games to two. The Cubs won back-to-back World Series championships in 1907 and 1908, the 108-year drought was also the longest such occurrence in all major North American sports. Since the start of play in 1969, the Cubs have appeared in the postseason eight times through the 2016 season. The Cubs are known as the North Siders, a reference to the location of Wrigley Field within the city of Chicago, there is a divisional rivalry with the St. Louis Cardinals and also a newer rivalry with the Milwaukee Brewers. There is also a rivalry with the White Sox. The Cubs began play in 1876 as the Chicago White Stockings, joining the National League as a charter member. Owner William Hulbert signed multiple star players, such as pitcher Albert Spalding and infielders Ross Barnes, Deacon White, the White Stockings played their home games at West Side Grounds and quickly established themselves as one of the new leagues top teams. Spalding won forty-seven games and Barnes led the league in hitting at.429 as Chicago won the first ever National League pennant, which at the time was the games top prize. After back-to-back pennants in 1880 and 1881, Hulbert died, and Spalding, the White Stockings, with Anson acting as player-manager, captured their third consecutive pennant in 1882, and Anson established himself as the games first true superstar. In 1885 and 86, after winning N. L. pennants, both seasons resulted in match ups with the St. Louis Brown Stockings, with the clubs tying in 1885 and with St. Louis winning in 1886. This was the genesis of what would become one of the greatest rivalries in sports. In all, the Anson-led Chicago Base Ball Club won six National League pennants between 1876 and 1886. As a result, Chicagos club nickname transitioned, and by 1890 they had known as the Chicago Colts, or sometimes Ansons Colts
12.
St. Louis Cardinals
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The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League Central division. Busch Stadium has been their home ballpark since 2006, with origins as one of the early professional baseball clubs in St. Upon the discontinuation of the AA, St. Louis joined the NL in 1892, at time, they were called the Browns. One of the most successful franchises in history, the Cardinals have won 11 World Series championships. Their 19 National League pennants rank third in NL history, in addition, St. Louis has won 13 division titles in the East and Central divisions. While still in the AA, St. Louis won four league championships, the Cardinals have won 105 or more games in four different seasons and won 100 or more a total of nine times. Cardinals players have won 20 league MVPs, four batting Triple Crowns, and three Cy Young Awards. Baseball Hall of Fame inductees include Lou Brock, Dizzy Dean, Bob Gibson, Whitey Herzog, Rogers Hornsby, Joe Medwick, Stan Musial, Branch Rickey, Red Schoendienst, Ozzie Smith, and Bruce Sutter. In 2016, Forbes valued the Cardinals at $1.6 billion, making them the 7th-most valuable franchise in MLB, their revenue the year was $300 million. Since their purchase in 1995, owner William DeWitt, Jr. s investment group has seen enormous growth from the $147 million purchase price, John Mozeliak is the general manager and Mike Matheny is the manager. Professional baseball began in St. Louis with the inception of the Brown Stockings in the National Association in 1875, the NA folded following that season, and the next season, St. Louis joined the National League as a charter member, finishing in third place at 45-19. George Bradley hurled the first no-hitter in Major League history, the NL expelled St. Louis from the league after 1877 due to a game-fixing scandal and the team went bankrupt. Without a league, they continued play as a barnstorming team through 1881. For the 1882 season, Chris von der Ahe purchased the team, reorganized it, and made it a member of the American Association. 1882 is generally considered to be the first year existence of the St. Louis Cardinals, the next season, St. Louis shortened their name to the Browns. Soon thereafter they became the dominant team in the AA, as manager Charlie Comiskey guided St. Louis to four pennants in a row from 1885 to 1888. Pitcher and outfielder Bob Caruthers led the league in ERA and wins in 1885 and he also led the AA in OBP and OPS in 1886 and finished fourth in batting average in 1886 and fifth in 1887
