On June 20, 1881 – A new team is formed in the American Association in Cincinnati after the demise of the previous Cincinnati Reds team after seven of the eight-team owners adopted a pledge to ban both beer and Sunday baseball at the regular league meeting in December. Only Cincinnati president W. H. Kennett refused to sign the pledge, so the other owners preemptively expelled Cincinnati from the league for violating the new rules even though they were not yet in effect.
Cincinnati’s expulsion incensed Cincinnati Enquirer sports editor O. P. Caylor, who made two attempts to form a new league on behalf of the receivers for the now-bankrupt Reds franchise. When these attempts failed, he formed a new independent ballclub known as the Red Stockings that starts off with a weekend series against St Louis. Caylor and former Reds president Justus Thorner received an invitation from Philadelphia businessman Horace Phillips to attend a meeting of several clubs in Pittsburgh planning to establish a new league to compete with the NL. Upon arriving, however, Caylor and Thorner found that no other owners had accepted the invitation, while even Phillips declined to attend his own meeting. By chance, the duo met former pitcher Al Pratt, who paired them with former Pittsburgh Alleghenys president H. Denny McKnight. Together, the three hatched a scheme to form a new league by sending a telegram to each of the owners who were invited to attend the meeting stating that he was the only person who did not attend and that everyone else was enthusiastic about the new venture and eager to attend a second meeting in Cincinnati. The ploy worked, and the American Association (AA) was officially formed at the Hotel Gibson in Cincinnati. The new Reds, with Thorner now serving as president, became a charter member of the AA.
They will succeed and become the modern-day Cincinnati Reds by 1890.
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