National Association

Cleveland Forest Citys History

By Patrick Mondout

The Forest City Base Ball Club of Cleveland ("Forest Citys" or the "Cleveland Forest Citys") was a short-lived franchise in the National Association.

At a glance... CLEVELAND FOREST CITYS Franchise Facts Established 1868 Disbanded  1872 Located Cleveland Executives J.S Evans (1871) H.C. Doolittle (1872) Year by Year Results W L % 1871  10 19 .345 1872  6 16 .273 Affiliations NABBP (1868-1870) National Association (1871-1872) Postseason/Titles NA Titles (0) Nicknames Forest Citys of Cleveland (1868-1872) Ballparks National Association Grounds (1868-1872) Top Performances Single-Season Career

The team was an inaugural member of the NA and played in the first ever major league game on May 4, 1871 against the Kekiongas of Fort Wayne. The team played its home games at the National Association Grounds and they offered what are believed to be the first season tickets for $6 ($10 if you wanted to bring your wife and park your carriage).

Future Hall of Famer Deacon White was the only real star the team had and the costs of paying a professional team to travel and stay in far away locales proved too much for a number of early professional teams, including the Forest Citys of Cleveland.

National Association sources/bibliography:
Baseball: The Early Years by Harold Seymour.
Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search For The Roots Of The Game by David Block.
Baseball in Blue and Gray: The National Pastime during the Civil War by George B. Kirsch.
Blackguards and Red Stockings by William J. Ryczek
The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870 by Marshall D. Wright.
Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball by Warren Goldstein.
When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865-1870 by William J. Ryczek

David Nemec, the tireless 19th Century Baseball researcher, has also written a novel called Early Dreams, which takes place during this era and features real-life characters such as Cap Anson, George Wright, and Henry Lucas.

General Baseball History sources/bibliography:
Baseball: A History of America's Game by Benjamin G. Rader.
Baseball: A Film By Ken Burns (PBS DVD)
The Formation, Sometimes Absorption and Mostly Inevitable Demise of 18 Professional Baseball Organizations, 1871 to Present by David Pietrusza.
The Great 19th Century Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball, 2nd Edition by David Nemec.
Early Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908 by Dean A. Sullivan.
Middle Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1900-1948 by Dean A. Sullivan.
Late Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball 1945-1972 by Dean A. Sullivan
Past Time: Baseball as History by Jules Tygiel
America's National Game: Historic Facts Concerning the Beginning, Evolution, Development and Popularity of Baseball by Albert Spalding
Total Baseball: The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia by John Thorn, et al.