MLB is poised to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the first professional baseball team:

The Cincinnati Reds are fashionably celebrating the 150th anniversary of the professional baseball-pioneering Red Stockings team.

Joey Votto and crew will play games in 15 sets of throwback uniforms, including a navy blue and a red-pants “Palm Beach” version, during a season-long celebration of the city’s baseball heritage highlighted by the undefeated 1869 Cincinnati team that barnstormed coast-to-coast in post-Civil War America. Baseball’s first openly all-salaried club, the Red Stockings popularized eye-catching uniforms with knicker-style pants and bright red socks while elevating the sports with a variety of innovations.

“From a historical point of view and in the evolution of baseball as the national pastime, the 1869 Red Stockings were the cornerstone,” said Greg Rhodes, the Reds team historian and co-author of “The First Boys of Summer.” ”It’s hard to imagine the modern game of baseball without the Red Stockings.”

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I started watching baseball in 1969, which was a very good year as a starting point. It was the first season with 24 teams, the first season with divisions, the first season with the League Championship Series, and the 100th anniversary of professional baseball.

There is an excellent discussion of the evolution of professional baseball and soccer in the book National Pastime. Sports up until the Reds were amateur competitions. When I was young, amateur’s were held up as pure competitors, but the truth is only the wealthy could afford to compete without compensation. Requiring amateur status kept the riff-raff out of the games. Of course, winning was important, so ringers were brought in and paid. The Red Stockings simply stopped hiding the payoffs and celebrated the best baseball team they could assemble.