Professional baseball history in Omaha began in 1869 when the Cincinnati Red Stockings came to town, besting local teams 65-1 and 56-3, and touching off a barnstorming tradition that would bring Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and others over the years to League Park, Brown Park, and Municipal Stadium (later rededicated as Rosenblatt Stadium). Omaha became part of the Western League in 1895. William "Pa" Rourke's League Park at 20th and Vinton became Omaha's first municipal ballpark in 1911 and the center of professional Omaha baseball until its destruction by fire in 1936. The 1940s and early...