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Mike Kelly's
Reds team, whose known today as the Kelly's
Killers, was born under rather
strange circumstances. The west side Cincinnati
Reds had played in the American Association from
1882 to 1889 before moving into the National
League for the 1890 season. After the 1890
season the club was teetering on bankruptcy. The
National League Reds were then sold to Frank Brunell and Albert Johnson, who planned to move
their club from the National League to the
Players League. The Players League was a third
major league that competed against the National
League and American Association in 1890. When
the Players League called it quits before the
1891 season, the Association began to court the
Cincinnati Reds new owners. The courting worked
and the Cincinnati Reds planned to rejoin the
American Association, their former league,
rather than continue play in the National League
for the 1891 season.
Meanwhile, Charles Prince, who owned the Players
League pennant-winning Boston Reds was shifting
his team from the folded Players League into the
American Association. In doing so, he decided to
unload his star player, catcher Mike "King"
Kelly, to the Cincinnati Reds. Kelly had
threatened to leave the Boston Reds and return
to play in Cincinnati where he began his career,
so Kelly had no problem with this move.
With the Cincinnati Reds moving back to the
American Association, the National League
decided to put a new
team in Cincinnati. The new club would replace
the failed Indianapolis Hoosiers franchise in
the National League. The new Cincinnati club
would be headed by John T. Brush, who was
president of the Hoosiers in 1887.
Now here's where the situation gets tricky. For
reasons unknown, the new owners of the
Cincinnati Reds, Frank Brunell and Albert
Johnson, sold the Reds back to the National
League for $30,000 dollars after paying $40,000
for the club a few months prior. John T. Brush
would eventually take control of the Reds since
he was promised a Cincinnati franchise by the
National League. The club had been committed to
three different major leagues during this crazy
off season, but ultimately they stayed put in
the National League.
The move was a crushing blow for the dying
American Association. They had lost the
Cincinnati Reds and needed to fill the void, so
the Association installed a new Cincinnati
franchise to replace the Reds. When all was said
and done Cincinnati would have two major league
franchises competing during the 1891 baseball
season. The new Cincinnati franchise would also
retain the rights of Mike Kelly to manage the
club.
While historically this franchise is referred to
as "Kelly's Killers", the fact of the matter is
that the club's real nickname was the Reds.
More often then not the newspapers referred to Mike Kelly's club
as such, giving Cincinnati not only two major
league teams in one year but two major league
teams with the same nickname. Only on a handful
of
occasions was the club ever referred to as
Kelly's "killers" during the club's
existence.
The ownership of the AA Reds was Chis von der
Ahe who also owned the St. Louis Browns. This
fellow was a truly colorful character. A large
man with a bushy mustache and exaggerated German
accent, Von der Ahe was the first baseball owner
with a significant public persona. He would sit
in a special box behind third base with a
whistle and binoculars. He used the whistle to
get the attention of players or, maybe, for
someone to get him a beer. He was a perfect fit
for Cincinnati. Furthermore, he hired Ban
Johnson, the gentleman who eventually formed the
American League, to work in the front office as
the club's Sporting Life correspondent. Von der
Ahe also hired former major league manager Frank
Bancroft to be the AA Reds business manager.
Ownership began looking for a place for the team
to play. The Avenue Grounds, which was located a
few miles north of the National League Reds
League Park, was subject to an option by the NL
club and was not available. So the AA Reds had
to look elsewhere. With vacant lots in the city
being few and far between, the AA Reds would
have to look towards the outskirts of the city.
They explored the Full Mile Driving Park in
Oakley, a piece of property known as the
Woodruff Estate in Clifton, and even grounds in
Covington, Kentucky near the Licking River. But
plans for all sites were scrapped. Ownership
settled for the Pendleton Grounds in East End.
Transportation to the site was highly
inconvenient. Coming from the city, people had
to take a lengthy steamboat ride down the Ohio
River. By way of land, spectators could either
take a fifteen to twenty-five minute train ride
from the corner of Broadway Street and Court
Street, now called East Court Street, or from
the foot of Vine Street over the Front Street
connection track. A connection track was a
wooden viaduct between the river and the
riverfront buildings, and Front Street was
located where modern day Mehring Way runs.
The inconvenient location of the AA Reds
ballpark and the fact that the team did not play
all that well on the field hurt the club
tremendously. Ticket sales were dismal, the
east-side Reds draw for the season was a
dreadful 63,000, which was the lowest in the
major leagues. The club was going nowhere fast,
but ownership refused to call it quits. They
explored building a new ballpark on the west
side of Cincinnati for the 1892 baseball season,
but after many discussions by league leaders the
AA Reds ownership decided to suspend the team.
After an apathetic 8-0 loss to the St. Louis
Browns on August 17, the east-side Reds would
cease operations with a final season record of
43-57. With 34 games remaining on their
schedule, the Milwaukee Brewers of the Western
League stepped in and played out the Reds
remaining games.
The American Association had planned to
reactivate the franchise in Cincinnati
for the 1892 baseball season, but the league
eventually decided to merge four of their
franchises into the National League. St. Louis,
Baltimore, Washington & Louisville all shifted
to the senior circuit, and of those four teams
only the St. Louis club survived into the modern
era. |
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