The Cincinnati Red Stockings , established in 1869 as the first openly all-professional baseball team , voted to dissolve after the 1870 season . Player-manager Harry Wright then went to Boston , Massachusetts — at the invitation of Boston Red Stockings founder Ivers Whitney Adams — with brother George and two other Cincinnati players , to form the nucleus of the '' ' Boston Red Stockings ' '' , a charter member of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players . The original Boston Red Stockings team and its successors can lay claim to being the oldest continuously playing team in American professional sports . ( The only other team that has been organized as long , the Chicago Cubs , did not play for the two years following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 . ) Two young players hired away from the Forest City club of Rockford , Illinois , turned out to be the biggest stars during the NAPBBP years : pitcher Al Spalding ( founder of Spalding sporting goods ) and second baseman Ross Barnes
Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
History of the Boston Braves