Baseball Question

Here's a question posed by the late George Carlin: "If the Cincinnati Reds were really the first major league baseball team, who did they play?"



After posting the above question, I did a bit of research. The Dawg, a friend who is a baseball fanatic, said the Cincinnati team played non-professional teams initially. He suggested that they even paid other teams to play, typically teams that were organized around their places of employment. The following info came from the official site of the Cincinnati Reds: http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/







1869
May 4: The 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first all-professional nine, kick off their first regular season with a 45-9 win over the Great Westerns of Cincinnati.


1869
Nov. 6: In the final official match of the season, the Red Stockings defeat the Mutuals of New York, 17-8, on Union Grounds. Baseball’s first team of professionals finished the season with a perfect 57-0 record.