Team: Cincinnati Reds
Sport: Baseball
Venue: Great American Ball Park
Manager: Bob Boone
Championships: 5 - 1919, 1940, 1975, 1976, 1990
Background: The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of the National League.
Founded: 1869, 1882, or 1890, depending on the account. See below.
Formerly known as: The Red Stockings in the 19th century; the Redlegs, during the 1950s when the term "Red" carried connotations of communism.
Home ballpark: Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati
Uniform colors: Red and white, trim Black
Logo design: a red "C" with the word "REDS" inside
Wild Card titles won (0): none
Division titles won (9): 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1990, 1994, 1995
American Association pennants won (1): 1882
National League pennants won (9): 1919, 1939, 1940, 1961, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1976, 1990
World Series championships won (5): 1919, 1940, 1975, 1976, 1990

Franchise History
The beginning

The original Cincinnati Red Stockings, baseball's first openly all-professional team, was founded in 1869. The Red Stockings won 130 games in a row between 1869 & 1870, before the Brooklyn Atlantics defeated the Red Stockings. Early stars for the Red Stockings included the Wrights, George and Harry. (In 1871, George Wright took most of his best players to Boston, and founded the Boston Red Stockings, now known as the Atlanta Braves.) The Red Stockings were a charter member of the National League in 1876, but was expelled from the league later, in part for violating league rules by serving beer to fans at games.

When the American Association, a rival league, began play in 1882, it included a team from Cincinnati, which was also called the Red Stockings. By some accounts, the AA team switched leagues in 1890; by other accounts, the AA team folded the same year the new NL team started, and the new team simply signed many of the AA team's star players. The Red Stockings wandered through the remainder of the 1890s signing local stars & aging veterans.

At the turn of the century, the Reds (shortened from the Red Stockings so not to be confused with the Boston AL entry, now shortened to Red Sox) had hitting stars like Sam Crawford and Cy Seymour. Seymour's .377 average in 1905 was the first individual batting crown won by a Red. In 1911, Bob Bescher stole 81 bases which is still a team record.

From opening of Redland Field to the Great Depression
In 1912 Redland Field, built on the corner of Findley and Western on the city's west side opened for the Reds. By the late 1910s the Reds began to come out of the second division. The 1918 team finished 4th, and then new manager Pat Moran led the Reds to a NL pennant in 1919. The 1919 team had hitting stars led by Edd Roush and Heinie Groh while the pitching staff was led by Hod Eller and Harry "Slim" Sallee, a lefthander. The Reds finished ahead of John McGraw's New York Giants, and then won the world championship in 8 games over the Chicago White Sox.