1865

The Forest Citys Base Ball Club was founded on June 7th, 1865 by local men in the growing industrial city of Rockford, Illinois. Rockford had been given the nickname “The Forest City” in an article featured in the New York Tribune in 1853. So naturally the city’s premier baseball team was known as the Forest Citys. After years of amateur success on the diamond, this team would go on to become a founding member of the first professional baseball league (the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players), have two former players enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame (Al Spalding & Cap Anson), and help transform baseball from its early stages into the game we know today!

There are two different stories as to how baseball found its way to Rockford. According to Hall of Famer, Al Spalding, there was a man from Rockford who traveled to New York City and while there witnessed baseball games played at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey.  Enthralled, he then purchased a copy of a baseball book of rules and presented the game to his fellow townspeople once he returned home to Rockford. The other story claims that John Lewis, a traveling insurance salesman from Cincinnati, convinced a local cricket club to adopt the new American game of baseball and gave the group his copy of the Abner Doubleday rules book.

However baseball found its way to Rockford, we can be sure that by 1865 the game was very popular. Rockford had eight different baseball clubs with such names as the Mercantiles, Pioneers, Plough Boys, Sinnissippis, and Unions. But, by far the best team was the Forest Citys Base Ball Club. The Forest Citys had 150 local sponsors and truly were “Rockford’s Team.” The original nine, as they were known, included:

1. S.J. Sawyer – P
2. Al Barker – C
3. George E. King – 1B
4. T.T. Webster – 2B
5. S. Lakin – 3B
6. H.J. Warner – SS
7. W. Stearns – LF
8. M.L. Wheller – CF
9. Brown – RF
10. J.H. Manny – Scorer

The team’s executive officers were H. H. Waldo, President, I. S. Hyatt, Vice President, Mr. King, Secretary, George P. Ross, Treasurer, with E.C. Dunn and Henry Starr and C. G. Marlowe as directors.

On September 19 & 20, 1865 Rockford hosted the season ending state tournament for Illinois baseball teams at the Winnebago County Agricultural Society Fairgrounds. The three month old Forest Citys participated but didn’t win the tournament.

1866

During the baseball season of 1866 the Rockford Forest Citys began to establish themselves as a team to be reckoned with. They traveled around northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin playing teams from small cities and towns and gained a reputation as one of the best baseball clubs in the Midwest. The Forest Citys played their home games at Fairgrounds Park which still exists in Rockford to this day.  During the late 1800s the park was home to the Winnebago County Fairgrounds, hence the name. The field was an open area surrounded by trees with a small grandstand where fans could sit for 25 cents. From 1865 until 1871 the park was home to the Forest Citys club.  The field continued to be used for baseball in Rockford until 1887 when it was replaced by “Old Campgrounds Park.”

In late June of 1866, Rockford hosted teams from Bloomington, Chicago, Detroit, Freeport, and Milwaukee for an important midsummer tournament.  In the tournament’s final game, the Excelsiors of Chicago won the championship, and a gold ball prize, over Spalding and the Forest Citys.

1867

The 1867 season would solidify Rockford’s reputation as a baseball powerhouse and provide the city and their players with nationwide fame.  On July 25th, 1867 the Forest Citys were given an invitation to play at Dexter Park in Chicago against the famous Nationals of Washington, who were nearing the end of their western tour.

The Nationals were an “amateur” team in name only, boasting a roster of some of the era’s most renowned players, including baseball pioneer and Hall of Famer George Wright.  The Washington club had embarked on their “grand western tour” to show the teams of the Midwest that the Eastern baseball clubs were superior and also to secure their own reputation as a powerful champion baseball club. The Nationals began their western tour in Columbus, Ohio and traveled to Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, and St. Louis before finally reaching the Windy City. During their tour the Washington players completely destroyed their opponents by an average score of 84-18.  They even gave the famous Cincinnati Red Stockings their only loss of the 1867 season beating them 53-10. Once in Chicago, the Nationals were scheduled to play three games, one each against the Forest Citys, and the two premier Chicago baseball clubs, the Excelsiors and the Atlantics.

The first game of the Chicago stop found the previously undefeated Washington club matched up against a Rockford Forest Citys team with 16 year old Albert Spalding on the mound .  According to Spalding, “I experienced a severe case of stage fright when I found myself in the pitcher’s box, facing such renowned players as George Wright, Frank Norton, Harry Berthrong, [George] Fox, and others of the visiting team.” However he felt, young Spalding’s fastball was able to dazzle the Nationals hitters and earn the victory in a tightly contested game.  Rockford’s 29-23 defeat of the Nationals was a huge story featured in newspapers across the United States and the defeat was considered the biggest upset in organized baseball history. The Washington club’s leader Frank Jones even said that the Forest Citys, “spoiled the whole trip.” After the loss, the Nationals continued their winning ways beating the other two Chicago teams 49-9 and 78-17 respectively. The Forest Citys had been the only team able to defeat the Washington club during their entire tour and as a result gained a reputation as being the best team in the Midwest.

1868

1869

By 1869 the Forest Citys were an established and respected baseball club.  When they played home games in Rockford the entire city closed shop to attend the game.  Season tickets to the Forest Citys games were sold at Hiram Waldo’s store for $3 and individual game tickets cost 25¢ each.  Even though the official census of 1870 would only credit Rockford with a little over 11,000 residents, the Forest Citys games would easily draw crowds of several thousand spectators eager to watch the celebrated team.

The boys from Rockford also embarked on two different brief tours and played well on the road. The team’s final record was 21 wins and 4 losses. Of all the teams they played only one team was able to beat the Forest Citys, the renowned and invincible Cincinnati Red Stockings. Considered by many to be the one of the greatest teams of all time and the only team to go undefeated for an entire season (57-0 in 1869), the Reds defeated the Forest Citys twice in Rockford, once in Chicago, and once by just one run, 15-14, at home in Cincinnati. Once the season was over, Rockford claimed the 1869 title of Champions of the Northwest.

1870

Early in 1870, thanks to the success of the previous season’s tours, the Forest Citys’ board of directors decided to send the team on an eastern tour. The team would travel an estimated 7,731 miles. During the month traveling the eastern United States the boys from Rockford put together a very good 13-3-1 record. Their only losses came at the hands of the Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago White Stockings, and the New York Mutuals. Though Rockford avenged their losses to the Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago White Stockings, they were unable to beat the Mutuals after two attempts.

According to the Topeka, Kansas newspaper, the Daily Commonwealth, the Forest Citys were also the highlight of a baseball “tournament” held on May, 11, 1870 at the Topeka fairgrounds.  The boys from Rockford put on an astounding display of baseball prowess as they defeated the state champion club of Kansas, the Kaw Valleys, by a score of 41-6.  Later that afternnon, they followed their first win with a merciless beating of a picked nine from Kansas by the astounding score of 97-12!  Later the same evening, following Rockford’s two victories, the city of Topeka held a “Baseball Promenade” in their honor.

In the July 12th, 1870 issue of the Chicago Evening Post crowned the Forest Citys the champion club of America:

If Chicago has no cause for local rejoicing over the achievements of her professional baseball representatives (the White Stockings) now making themselves famous in the East by the facility with which they are getting beaten, she can at least join heartily in the State pride resulting from the remarkable record made by the club of amateurs residing in and legitimately belonging to the flourishing town of Rockford, Illinois… Based upon a purely legitimate and sportsmanlike standard, we consider the Forest City nine the champion club of America.

This praise was well deserved as the Forest Citys had defeated almost every other major baseball club of any consequence in the United States over the past two years. According to the Rockford Register, November 19, 1870, “the defeats of the leading clubs during the past season are as follows: Red Stockings (Cincinnati) – 6, White Stockings (Chicago) – 8, Athletics (Philadelphia) -10, Forest Citys (Rockford) – 10, Forest Citys (Cleveland) – 12, Eckfords (Brooklyn) – 14, Haymakers (Troy) – 14, Mutuals (New York City) – 15, Atlantics (Brooklyn) – 16, Unions of Morissania (Bronx) – 17.” During this time Rockford’s nine were still considered to be an amateur club but they were ranked alongside the professionals.  This was due to the fact that the Forest Citys defeated every other team previously mentioned except the Mutuals of New York who they lost to twice,  The Unions of Morissania after a 4-4 tie game was called due to rain, and the Eckfords, who never scheduled a game with Rockford.

1871

1871 was a monumental year for the Forest Citys and for the sport of baseball. In two separate meetings that took place in March in New York City professional baseball was born. The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was established by club delegates from across the nation. The entry fee to join the league was $10 and the Rockford representative accepted the league’s championship rules and paid the fee. This league was the first major league. The National Association would  eventually develop and become the National League, half of today’s modern Major League Baseball. The original professional baseball teams were:

1. Boston Red Stockings – today’s Atlanta Braves
2. Chicago White Stockings – today’s Chicago Cubs
3. Cleveland Forest Citys
4. Fort Wayne Kekiongas
5. New York Mutuals
6. Philadelphia Athletics
7. Rockford Forest Citys
8. Troy Haymakers
9.  Washington Olympics