National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (1871–1875), regarded by baseball historians as the first professional baseball league.
In this way, their name parallels the PCL's Hollywood Stars or the National Basketball Association's Brooklyn Nets, teams that represented a distinct neighborhood or borough of a city that was already represented in the same league with another team.
Association football | association football | National Football League | National Register of Historic Places | Forward (association football) | National Hockey League | Goalkeeper (association football) | Defender (association football) | England national football team | National Basketball Association | National Science Foundation | National Geographic | National Trust | American Association for the Advancement of Science | National Endowment for the Arts | National Geographic Society | Association of Tennis Professionals | Argentina national football team | National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty | National Park Service | National League | Australian National University | National Guard | National Geographic Channel | professional wrestling | National Institutes of Health | American Library Association | National Guard of the United States | World Boxing Association | National Collegiate Athletic Association |
On May 4, 1871 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he pitched a shutout in the inaugural game of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NA), the first professional league.
In 1871 the Forest Citys joined the first professional league, the National Association.
The team appealed, first to William G. Bramham, president of the National Association, then to Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Commissioner of Baseball, but the ruling stood.
He began his career at age 19 with the St. Louis Red Stockings of the National Association, and he played one year for the Indianapolis Blues before joining the Chicago White Stockings in 1879, where he would remain for the rest of his playing career, eleven seasons almost exclusively as a catcher.