The Worcester Worcesters were a short-lived Major League Baseball(MLB) team based in Worcester MA that existed from 1880 to 1882
The Worcester Worcesters began playing in the National Association League, a semi-pro baseball league consisting of teams based in the Northeastern USA, in 1879 . The team was invited to join the MLB’s National League as a replacement for the insolvent Syracuse Stars based largely on the performance of their star pitcher; Lee Richmond. Just prior to joining the MLB in December of 1879, the Worcester Worcesters become the first professional baseball team to play in Cuba, at the time still a Spanish colony. The trip to Cuba was a financial disaster for the team when for various reasons, most notably being that Spanish authorities tried to ban the sport of baseball for being a symbol of US subversion, they would only play two games against Cuban teams. The team played their home games at the Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds, often referred to as Driving Park, in downtown Worcester; a multi-used park that also held agricultural fair(hence the name) and a horse harness racing track. The team’s colors were ruby-red and brown, which led to some sources referring to the team under the nicknames ‘Ruby Legs’ or ‘Brown Stockings’. In order to admit Worcester into the major leagues, the National League’s board of directors had to waive the requirement that cities had to have a population of at least 75,000(Worcester’s population at the time was only 58,000). The Worcesters raised capital to support entry into the MLB by selling ownership shares in the team for $35 a share($1,100 in 2025). The team also held promotions by sponsoring foot-races, benefit concerts, and dramatic plays all around New England. They also offered discounts on train fares and tickets to games for fans outside of the Worcester area.
The 1880 season, the team’s first in the Majors, proved to be the most memorable in the Worcesters short existence. On June 12 the team’s ace pitcher Lee Richmond threw the first perfect game in Major League Baseball history against the Cleveland Blues. A couple months later on August 20th the team dubiously became the first team to be no-hit at home in a 0-1 loss at the hands of the Buffalo Bisons. The team finished the 1880 season with a record of 40-43(.482) the team’s best of their existence. Off the field in 1880, the Worcester Worcesters were instrumental in getting the Cincinnati Reds temporarily expelled from the National League for violating league rules against selling beer on Sundays at their ballpark. The Reds were reinstated in 1882; not coincidentally the same year as the Worcesters’ demise. In their unremarkable second season, the team finished in last place with a record of 32-50 (.390). By the team third season, during which the team finished with a dismal record of 18-66(.214) it had become glaringly obvious that the city of Worcester was just too small to support a Major League team. The Worcesters made the motions to voluntarily resign from the National League, but were encouraged to finish out the season as a lame-duck team. The last two games of the Worcesters lifetime were played in September 1882 at home against the Troy Trojans (a team which were in the process of resigning from the National League for the same reason). The teams’ penultimate game on the 28th, in which Worcester lost, drew a crowd of only 6 spectators; a record for the lowest attendance for any North American professional sports team for a game open to paid spectators. The record would stand until 2015 when protests in Baltimore, Maryland caused an Oriole’s game to be closed to the public. The team officially tendered its resignation from the National League on December 6, 1882. In need of a new team to balance out the schedule the National League awarded an expansion team to the city of Philadelphia. The new team was originally named the Quakers, but in 1890 they would become the Philadelphia Phillies. Some sources, including the Phillies themselves, wrongly suggest the Worcesters relocated to Philadelphia, but there is no link between the two teams; with no players from the 1882 Worcesters played for the Quakers in 1883. In 1963, pitcher John Clarkson was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame; the only alumni of the Worcester Worcesters to be so honored. Professional baseball, on a minor league level, would return to the city of Worcester(which is now the second largest city in New England) when the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox relocated from Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 2021; becoming the Worcester Red Sox