Worcester Worcesters
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The Worcesters were a 19th century Major League Baseball team. They played just three years in the National League. Contrary to many reports, the team had no nickname, playing merely as the "Worcesters". The team color was brown, but there are no contemporary accounts referring to them as the "Ruby Legs" or "Brown Stockings".
The team played at the Worcester Driving Park Grounds in the Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds, located south of Highland Street between Sever Street and Russell Street in Worcester, Massachusetts.
On June 12, 1880, pitcher John Lee Richmond threw the first perfect game [1] in major league history, against the Cleveland Blues. The team made history again on August 20 of the same year by becoming the first team to be no-hit at home, when Pud Galvin of the Buffalo Bisons defeated them 1-0.
According to Lee Allen, Cincinnati writer and eventual director of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Worcester also impacted the National League in another way in 1880, being instrumental in having the Cincinnati Reds expelled from the league following the season, due to violations of the league rules against selling beer at the ballpark.
In his 1948 book, The Cincinnati Reds (published by Putnam), Allen took some satisfaction in pointing out that the Reds re-formed in 1882, initially as a member of the American Association, the same year that Worcester's days as a major league franchise, as well as their influence, came to an end.
The Worcester team was dropped from the league after minuscule attendance in 1882. Their spot was taken by the Philadelphia Quakers (later Phillies), but there is no direct link between the teams.
