1870, professionalism was wide open, spelling the end of the "amateur era", and paving the way to the first professional league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, which began operating in 1871. With the Cincinnati Red Stockings dissolved, four of its players regrouped in Boston to join the new National Association (often called the NA for short, by modern historians). Manager Harry Wright and his brother George Wright (baseball's version of the "Wright brothers") brought along Cal McVey and Charlie Gould to form the Boston Red Stockings, which eventually evolved into the Atlanta Braves (q.v.) Cincinnati Reds First official use: 1911 Due to the influence of the Red Stockings, nearly every professional team in Cincinnati since then has worn red as their primary trim color. The Cincinnati teams have also tended to associate themselves with the 1869-70 club, but there is no direct connection other than the name. When the NA folded, the best teams, and some new ones, regrouped to form the National League in 1876. One of the new teams was called the Cincinnati Red Stockings, reclaiming the old name. The team was expelled from the National League in 1880 for selling beer at games and playing on Sundays. In 1882 a new league formed to challenge the established NL: The American Association. The AA appealed to a different, rowdier market than the stoic NL, by offering cheaper admission prices as well as alcoholic beverages, which at that time were forbidden in the NL ballparks. Ironically, this "AA" became known as "The Beer and Whisky League", and was criticized by the NL leadership for placing so many of its teams in "river towns", characterizing the AA cities as being populated by low-class citizens: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville and St. Louis. The new version of the Cincinnati Red Stockings (later shortened to Cincinnati Reds; the earliest mention of "Reds" in the Spalding Guide dates from the 1895 edition) became prosperous. The team won the first American Association pennant, and survived most of Association's ten-year existence, transferring to the National League in 1890. For 1891, a short lived "Cincinnati Reds" entry joined the Association, otherwise known as "Kelly's Killers". The club failed to finish the season and was replaced by Milwaukee. By then the Association was floundering, and collapsed after the season ended. The NL Reds continue to play in Cincinnati to this day. The team first used the