On May 4, 1871, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players began its inaugural season at Fort Wayne's Grand Duchess ballpark. The Fort Wayne Kekionga beat Cleveland’s Forest City team in an upset with a score of 2-0. The Society for American Baseball Research noted that "there were no errors by Cleveland and only three by Fort Wayne, a marvel in those days of bare hands and rutted fields. Moreover, the low score was unprecedented among top-level clubs."
VIDEO: 150 years ago today (May 4, 1871) the Fort Wayne Kekiongas hosted the Cleveland Forest Citys in the first-ever professional baseball league game! The game took place at what is now Camp Allen Park. Glenn Marini & the WANE sports team put together this half-hour documentary called "Summit City Hardball History" to celebrate that historic game and 150 years of baseball Fort Wayne!
With the 150th anniversary of the Fort Wayne Kekiongas hosting the Cleveland Forest Citys in the first-ever professional league baseball game on May 4, 1871, we bring you the half-hour documentary "Summit City Hardball History: Celebrating 150 Years of Baseball in Fort Wayne."
Bobby Matthews "Major League Baseball Player. One of the true superstar ballplayers of the 19th century, his name is almost forgotten today, yet, he was a man of many firsts during his brilliant career. A Baltimore native, he set three records when he appeared in the box for the Ft. Wayne Kekiongas against the Cleveland Forest Citys on May 4, 1871. With a 2-0 win, he became the first pitcher to start, win and throw a shutout in a professional league game. (That victory came in the National Association) He later became the first first person to pitch 100 professional league games, and supposedly, was the first pitcher to ever throw an out curve and spitball, though other players laid claim to those feats." from Robert T. Mathews on Find A Grave.
Baseball’s first professional league game, 150 years ago July 6, 2022 Daniel Beals on YouTube
May. 4, 2021
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WPTA) - May 4 is a special day in baseball, especially here in 21Country.
A monument marks a historic site at Camp Allen Park, alongside the St. Marys River.
“You could argue that Fort Wayne was part of the first professional sports league in America, which is kind of cool,” sports historian Blake Sebring told us.
Sebring has literally written the book on sports history in Fort Wayne.
“The Kekiongas were a club team in Fort Wayne,” he said, “they had a little bit of a reputation in the midwest as being a good team.”
In 1871, they were invited to join the National Association of Professional Baseball Players.
A city in Ohio was slated to make history that day.
But Mother Nature had other plans.
“The first game was originally supposed to happen in Cincinnati like it is traditionally now and days… but the game got rained out,” Sebring explained, “the next game on the schedule happened to be the Cleveland Forest Cities in Fort Wayne, later that afternoon. And that became the first professional league sports game.”
Rain would also wreak havoc on the Kekiongas, but not before they claimed victory, thanks to the help of their creative pitcher.
“Bobby Matthews, who a lot of people believed, or was reported to have invented the curveball,” Sebring told us, “he was the pitcher that day, for the Kekiongas, and he got the two to nothing shutout.”
Unfortunately, the lifespan of the team would only last a few years, not even completing the season after that historic game.
But Fort Wayne continues to churn out talent, just as it did 150 years ago.
“We’ve had a variety of athletes over the years that have really done well professionally in reaching major leagues. You’ve got Zach McKinstry with the Dodgers right now. You’ve got Josh VanMeter with Arizona,” he added, “they’ve proven it could be done and it encourages kids to dream to ‘you know, maybe I can make that and do that to’.”
In 1871, the Fort Wayne Kekiongas are among the original members of the National Association of Professional Baseball players which later became the National League.
During the Civil War, in April 1962, some young men formed the Summit City Club to play baseball on that land that is today covered by the Fort Wayne Community Schools' Grile Administration Center. After the war, the club disbanded and another team was formed, the Kekiongas.
In 1870, a team from Baltimore, called the Marylands, had disbanded right in the middle of a tour of the Midwest, and many of the best players ended up on the Kekiongas. One of them was the pitcher, Bobby Mathews, who some say invented the curveball.
The National Association of Professional Baseball Players was started during a meeting in New York. Representatives from Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago White Stockings, Boston Red Stockings, Washington, D.C. Olympians, Troy, N.Y. Haymakers, New York City Mutuals, Cleveland Forest Cities, Rockford, Ill., Forest Cities, and Fort Wayne were present. The entry fee was $10 per team.
Each team was to play the others in a best-of-five series. The team with the best record at the end of the season was entitled to fly the championship streamer, or pennant, at its ballpark for a year. The teams tossed coins to see who would play the first game.
The Kekiongas and Cleveland won the flips and the first game was scheduled for May 4, 1871.
The National League was founded Feb. 2, 1876.
It's something of an urban legend that the Kekiongas evolved into the Brooklyn Dodgers, but actually the Fort Wayne team folded in July after a 7-21 start and was replaced in the league by a Brooklyn team that eventually became the Dodgers.
In 1871, the Kekiongas play the Cleveland Forest Citys in what is believed to be the first professional baseball game.
After the Civil War, the Fort Wayne Kekiongas baseball team was formed in 1866. In 1869 the team played the Cincinnati Red Stockings who were believed to be the first team in the country of paid professional players. The Red Stockings won easily 86-8, and then won the rematch later that season 41-7.
The Kekiongas were actually a very good team, and won the state championship in 1870, and in 1871 the National Association of Professional Baseball Players was started at a meeting in New York. The teams tossed coins to see which squads would pay the first game, and Fort Wayne and Cleveland won.
The game was played in Fort Wayne, and the Kekiongas were leading 2-0 when the game was called because of rain in the top of the ninth inning.
On this day in 1871, the first professional major league baseball game was played in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Fort Wayne Kekionga beat the Cleveland Forest Citys, 2-0. The league lasted five seasons as the National Association. The ending of this league was the beginning of the long-standing National League. Though we have no images of the Fort Wayne team in our collections, pictured here is a player for the Indianapolis Hoosiers, a team in the National League from 1887-1889.
