The Norwich Reds baseball team was a charter member of the Connecticut State League. They won the league championship in 1900 as the Norwich Witches, their original team moniker.
In 1902 the team officially changed their name to the Norwich Reds. After compiling losing records over the next four seasons and floundering at the bottom of the league’s standings, they won the Connecticut State League championship in 1906 with a record of 72 wins and 53 losses.
Despite the championship in 1906, the team’s deep financial debt threatened their existence as a viable organization. The team owners were unable to meet the mortgage payments on the team’s stadium nor the fifteen hundred dollars in unpaid player’s salaries.
During the following season in 1907, the team compiled a stellar record of 71 wins and 51 losses. However even duplicating the previous season’s success could not save the financially strapped Norwich Reds team from extinction. The Reds played their final game of the 1907 season and vanished into history.
To see the images of the Norwich Reds baseball team’s opening day game of the 1907 season, see the Otis Library’s Flickr site of historical photographs.