On June 14, 1870, the most famous game in the history of baseball -- then, or, arguably, now -- was played when the mighty Red Stockings of Cincinnati, owners of a 71-game winning streak, met the Atlantic club at the Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn. The contest went back and forth, with the Atlantics tying the score in the eighth, 5–5 -- and that is where it stood after nine full innings. The rules of the era did not dictate extra innings unless one captain wished the game to continue. Harry Wright could well have taken the tie, and kept the unbeaten string alive, but bade the game go on. Cincy scored twice in the top of the eleventh to seemingly have the game in hand, but Brooklyn scored twice and had two men and one out when George Hall, the Atlantics’ center fielder, bounced a ball to shortstop George Wright: a sure double play, but Wright’s throw went awry. Brooklyn won, 8-7, and the Reds streak was over.
The expense of keeping a professional nine was so much that the Red Stockings' board of directors seriously considered disbanding the club: there even rumours that Wright and other top players would form a new version of the Reds in Boston. Fortunately for fans in the Queen City, this did not happen, and (after a shaky start), the Red Stockings would win eight pennants and five Centennial Cups (including four double-doubles between 1882-86) and, along with Forest City of Cleveland, were America's premiere ball club.
But, a generation later, there were those who still remembered that remarkable day in June of 1870, and when the Atlantics qualified for their first-ever Centennial Cup Final, there were many in Cincinnati who swore revenge!
The first game, held at the very same Capitoline Grounds that hosted the two clubs 23 years earlier (it would be abandoned after the series with the Atlantics joining the Eckfords at a new grounds in Flatbush in 1894), the Red Stox wasted no time, scoring four runs in the opening inning off Brooklyn starter Hugh O'Neill, then added three more in the second, In all, Cincy would mash twenty hits in a 15-9 slugfest. But the Atlantic club would not be steamrolled, as Harry Salisbury allowed ten hits but only two runs (while making a pair of hits himself) to even the Cup Final, 8-3.
Back at the Palace of the Fans -- where the club's loss to Fort Wayne in the Cup Final two years earlier has
also not been forgotten -- Dan Brouthers had two hits (including a homer), two runs and three RBI to give the Reds a 9-6 win. In Game 4, Atlantic took a 4-1 lead into the last of the fifth, with "Parisian Bob" Caruthers lining a two-run double.* But the Reds crushed Brooklyn with a six-run fifth inning, keyed by a three-run shot from Brouthers. Cincy plated six more in the closing innings in a 13-6 rout, and a 3-1 series lead.
[*Editor's note: For some reason, Caruthers was stuck on the Atlantics reserve team for the entire 1890 and 1891 seasons. He returned as strictly an outfielder in 1892. I have no idea why the game did this; he was an excellent hitter and pitcher, but suddenly he couldn't get off the bench for two prime years of his career. Really, I can't be bothered coming up with an in-universe explanation for this; can you think of one...?]
Atlantic desperately needed a win to send the Cup Final back to Brooklyn -- but thanks to mulatto star Edouard Payne, they wouldn't get one. Payne had two hits and drove in three runs -- and held Atlantic to just one tally and five hits in a 11-1 destruction. Hail, Red Stockings! You're champions
again...!
