Origin
In April 1862, several young men gathered in Fort Wayne, Indiana to form the Summit City Club to play baseball. Banker Allen Hamilton donated land between major thorofares Calhoun and Clinton Street, south of Lewis Street, for a ball field. The field was eventually named Hamilton Field.
Play was short-lived, as members enlisted in the Grand Army of the Republic, some dying in the war. The club reorganized in 1866, and a second team, the Kekionga Base Ball Club of Fort Wayne, was formed that year as well. The following year, several other teams were formed: the Twightwees, the Mechanics, the Socials, the Concordia Empires and the Keystones.
The Kekiongas played the legendary 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings twice. The Red Stockings were the first baseball team in the USA to have all paid players, and went $16,000 in debt - nearly half a million in today's dollars - to do so. Cincinnati won the first game 86-8, but as Fort Wayne had improved over the summer, they only achieved a 41-7 victory in the second contest. The 1869 Red Stockings ended up with 57 victories and 1 tie for the season.
The following summer, the Maryland Club of Baltimore broke up in mid-season, and the Kekiongas recruited their best players, including pitcher Bobby Matthews, who is credited with having invented the spitball and being the first master of the curveball. When the team played the Chicago White Sox later that season, the Chicago fans were so humiliated that they threw rocks at Fort Wayne players, injuring several of them.
The National Association of Professional Base-Ball Players was formed in New York, New York in 1871. In addition to the Kekiongas, the other teams were based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Chicago, Illinois, Boston, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., Troy, New York, New York City, Cleveland, Ohio and Rockford, Illinois. Each team was to play a best-3-of-5 series with each other team, and the best team would be able to fly a pennant for a year. The franchise fee for each team was $10. Season tickets, or "Subscriptions" for the Kekiongas sold for $5 in 1871, and allowed entry to games for two people.
Read more about this topic: Fort Wayne Kekiongas
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