1870 The New Orleans Pelicans Debut

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This photo shows an early 1900s New Orleans Pelicans minor league team
with "Shoeless" Joe Jackcon seated second from the right.

In
1870, the Cincinnati Redlegs, the nation’s first professional baseball club,
went on a cross-country tour of the United States. New Orleans was one of its many stops along the way. The first of the five games scheduled in New Orleans was played on April 25 against the New Orleans Pelicans. This was the first team to bear the Pelican label in public.

The game wasn’t even close. Cincinnati won, 51-1. But New Orleans had nothing to be ashamed of thought, because, over a two-year period, the Redlegs won 126 games and lost just six ( a .995 winning percentage).

The Redlegs scored more than 100 runs five times during this period. Of the five games the two played during that series, Cincinnati won every one, scoring 219 runs to the Pelicans’ 24.

Sources: Buddy Stall at href="http://clarionherald.org/20020313/stall.htm">http://clarionherald.org/20020313/stall.htm

href="http://www.blackbetsy.com/joepics1.htm">http://www.blackbetsy.com/joepics1.htm

1870 The New Orleans Pelicans Debut

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