If not for an 1876 meeting in New York City, baseball fans might now be cheering for the Covington Stars or the Ludlow Base Ball Club instead of the Cincinnati Reds.
Latonia filmmaker Cam Miller shared that fact during Tuesday’s webinar, “How Northern Kentucky Helped Save Baseball in Cincinnati,” part of the NKY History Hour sponsored by the Behringer-Crawford Museum in Covington.
“You know what? It’s very possible,” Miller said Wednesday. “I mean, one of those two teams, either Covington or Ludlow, would have possibly emerged. It’s hard to say … since Cincinnati had the dollars, Covington and Ludlow (did) not – much like today. Nothing’s really changed.”
“Covington was growing and they kept trying to get professional baseball in 1900 and 1913.”
Mary Jane Calderon, the museum’s communications manager, didn’t know there was so much Northern Kentucky baseball lore.
“I was very surprised to hear of the wonderful baseball history that we have locally,” Calderon said. “It was great to hear, since I am a Cincinnati Reds fan, it’s great to hear something local being a tie to that great team that we have.”
Cincinnati businessman and ballplayer Harry Wright founded the Cincinnati Base Ball Club in 1866; the team competed in the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP).
Three years later, the team became the Cincinnati Red Stockings and was technically the first all-professional baseball team.
The 1869 Red Stockings had a perfect 65-0 season as a member of the NABBP – the only baseball team to finish undefeated.
Fickle fans
But fans were fickle in 1870.
The Red Stockings extended their streak to 81 games in 1870 before losing to the Brooklyn Atlantics, 8-7 in 11 innings, on June 14, 1870. The team lost only six games that season, but attendance fell sharply and management decided not to field a team in 1871.
Meanwhile, the Covington Stars and the Ludlows continued to attract large crowds as independent teams. Miller said S.N. Hawes was the Stars’ majority owner, and George McCoy ran the Ludlows.
“Ludlow and Covington both had pretty good teams, but if you had to pick the best team it would be Covington,” Miller said. “(Covington) had more future MLB players, more quality players.”
The Stars played at the corner of 17th and Madison Streets, and the Ludlows called the Ludlow Ground at the corner of West Street and Post Place near River Road their home.
The Red Stockings’ George Wright, who was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, hit the first home run into the Ohio River against the Brooklyn Athletics on June 1, 1875 in Ludlow.
“He hit one about 430 feet,” Miller said. “It bounced a couple times, and, according to the newspapers, it rolled into the river.”
Miller said Cincinnati returned as an independent team in 1875 with a game against the Chicago White Stockings – which became the Chicago Cubs.
Some 6,000 fans saw the Stars and Reds play Aug. 31, 1875 at 17th and Madison. Because there were no lights, the game ended as a 5-5 tie.
“So now, the question is, ‘Oh, we have to solve this’,” Miller said. “We have to have a tie-breaking game. So on Sept. 11, after the Reds had opened up their new field … the Stars beat the Reds, 6-2.”
The clause
The future seemed bright for Northern Kentucky baseball – Covington and Ludlow were fielding teams for the 1876 season.
Then, it wasn’t.
When Cincinnati, Covington and Ludlow sent representatives to a January 1876 meeting to form what is now the National League. No one is certain who convinced the other owners to create a monopoly by adopting the “Five Mile Clause” to the bylaws – which meant each National League team controlled a five-mile radius from its city in all directions, which prevented anyone else from fielding a professional team.
“So there was not really a certain particular author of the clause, but it did make the bylaws pretty quickly,” Miller said. “I mean, that was one of the first things they talked about. The case was, let’s just squash these guys right now and get it over with. “
Covington had a chance at professional baseball when the American League formed in 1901; Charles Comiskey considered the city before choosing Chicago and becoming the White Sox.
Miller still thinks it was cool to watch a game in Northern Kentucky, especially Ludlow.
“You go there right now today, you can stand on top of that little bluff, that little hillside there, and look out across to Cincinnati, and that was what that park was known for,” Miller said. “ They had a grandstand built into that hillside. And then fans would just sit on the hill, almost like you would sit at Devou Park to watch a concert, the bandshell.
“It was a great park, and it was right across the river.”
Follow Cam Miller on Facebook (bit.ly/3ZCtWqI).