On May 4, 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings played their first game as a fully professional baseball club. The opponent was the Great Western club of Cincinnati, a local amateur team that had no realistic chance against a roster of paid professionals. Cincinnati won 45-9. It was not a close game. It was not supposed to be. The point was not the score. The point was that men had been compensated to show up, to train, to prepare, and to perform at the highest level the sport had yet seen....
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