View Full Version : 1869 Red Stockings
runningshoes
10-13-2006, 01:41 AM
How exactly do you interpret the word professional in association with this team?
They didn't play any pro teams.
Dodgerfan1
10-13-2006, 03:05 AM
How exactly do you interpret the word professional in association with this team?
They didn't play any pro teams.
Well, I would assume that since they were the first team to pay their players, they were the first pro team. Pretty simplistic, but that's my interpretation. I've never read anything that said they were the first team to PLAY a pro team, only that they WERE the first pro team.
Buzzaldrin
10-13-2006, 04:28 AM
They were the first team to OPENLY pay their players- most of the nation's larger teams had been either doing it under the table or finding local "jobs" that carried paychecks without work for their stars for over a decade.
And your interpretation is not simplistic- it's the ONLY one. A professional athlete is one who receives money for his or her services. Pure and simple. He can play against the Bad News Bears, or even the 1899 Spiders- makes no difference. He's a pro if he's paid.
TonyK
10-14-2006, 08:41 PM
One way to look at the '69 Reds is they were not a "semi-pro" club like a few other teams that paid their players by the game and/or found them jobs during the week.
Because they were paid a decent salary they had to play many games to earn it. When they had a day off, they often practiced to stay sharp and I read where they introduced new plays that other teams copied.
Brian McKenna
10-15-2006, 10:14 AM
It makes a lot of sense that baseball technically and strategically took off after the advent of the fully professional team. The men now had the focus to play more, practice more, get better, gel as a team and devote their energies to developing and refining tactics which would best help their chances of making more money - winning.