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| History |
The Reds play in the National League (NL) and were founded in 1882. They have won five World Series titles (1919, 1940, 1975, 1976, 1990) and nine NL pennants.The city of Cincinnati lays claim to hostin g the first truly professional baseball team, called the Red Stockings, which began play in 1869 and was undefeated in its first 81 games against amateur clubs. Another Cincinnati-based team by the same name was one of the founding members of the NL in 1876, but this team was expelled from the league in 1880 for playing games on Sunday and allowing liquor on the grounds of its ballpark. While 1882—the year a Red Stockings club that featured a few members of the banned NL squad joined the nascent American Association (AA)—is officially recognized by Major League Baseball as the current franchise’s first year, most Cincinnatians nevertheless consider the Reds the oldest franchise in baseball, and the Reds organization itself includes these earlier clubs in the team history. |
 The Red Stockings finished atop the AA in their first season and posted winning records in most of their eight years in the league. The team moved back to the NL in 1890, which was the same year it shortened its nickname to “Reds.” Cincinnati fielded a number of mediocre teams through the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, never finishing higher than third place in the NL until 1919.In 1938 the Reds’ young star pitcher Johnny Vander Meer became the only player in baseball history to throw no-hitters in consecutive starts. Vander Meer was a part of a nucleus of players that also included future Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi and that led the Reds to NL pennants in 1939 and 1940, as well as a World Series win in the latter season. By the middle of the decade, the Reds again found themselves routinely finishing in the bottom half of the NL. |
 Fearing association with communism at the height of the Red Scare in the United States, the team officially changed its nickname to “Redlegs” from 1954 to 1959. During this period one of the Reds’ few bright spots was Ted (“Big Klu”) Kluszewski, a power-hitting first baseman who famously cut the sleeves off his uniform to free his huge biceps. |
Baseball in the 1970s was dominated by Cincinnati teams known as the “ Big Red Machine,” which had left behind Crosley Field, with its distinctive left field terrace, for a new home, Riverfront Stadium. Boasting a regular lineup that featured three future Hall of Famers (catcher Johnny Bench, second baseman Joe Morgan, and first baseman Tony Pérez) as well as all-time major league hits leader Pete Rose, the Big Red Machine—under the guidance of manager Sparky Anderson—won five division titles in the first seven years of the decade. |
 Cincinnati fielded a few competitive teams through 1999, but the Reds of the first decade of the 21st century finished most of their seasons with losing records. In 2003 the Reds got a new home, the Great American Ball Park. In 2010 the Reds ended a 15-year play-off drought—and surprised most baseball observers—by winning a divisional title after having placed no higher than third in their division in the previous nine seasons. Cincinnati bested that achievement in 2012 by winning 97 games (the team’s highest win total since the days of the Big Red Machine) and captured another NL Central championship. |
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