1871 Fort Wayne Kekiongas

1871 Fort Wayne Kekiongas / Franchise: Fort Wayne Kekiongas / BR Team Page

Record: 7-12, Finished 7th in National Association (1871 NA)

Managed by Bill Lennon and Harry Deane

Ballpark: Kekionga Base Ball Grounds

History, Comments, Contributions

The moral of Fort Wayne, IN's lone season in professional sports was "Don't hire anyone from Baltimore." Unlike the Philadelphia Athletics, whose team was littered with homegrown talent, the Kekiongas imported most of their talent from the East Coast, and since Baltimore, MD was a major baseball town that did not have a major league team, that was a sensible place to recruit. Before the season was over, however, many of their recruits had returned to their homes. Pete Donnelly and Ed Mincher convinced the team to give them advances on their salaries, and then skipped town. Bill Lennon and Frank Selman were kicked off the team because of public drunkenness. Finally, when Tom Carey and Bobby Mathews left the team in August (probably after not getting paid), Fort Wayne just gave up.