This article contains weasel words, vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be clarified or removed. (March 2009)

The Forest City is a nickname or alternate toponym for Cleveland, Ohio.

The inspiration for the name is a reference to Cleveland, describing a highly sophisticated society amid a heavily forested environment in Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, which contains the Frenchman's observations of the United States in the 1830s. Early use of the moniker is uncertain. Some say that Timothy Smead, editor of the short-lived Ohio City Argus first put the name to use. Many others believe that William Case, secretary of the Cleveland Horticultural Society and Cleveland's mayor from 1850 to 1851, carried the name forward. Case was well known for encouraging the planting of fruit trees, and thus the name stuck.

In the late 1860s, the city's best baseball club adopted the name, chose professionalism in 1869 or 1870, and helped found the first professional league in 1871. The first National Association game was a visit by the Forest City club of Cleveland at the Kekionga club of Fort Wayne, Indiana on May 4, 1871. It is considered the first major league game by those who count the National Association as a major league. Complicating matters, there was a second Forest City club in the NA in 1871, based in Rockford, Illinois, which is also called the Forest City.

[edit] References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2008)

• Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: Forest City
• Retrosheet. "First National Association Game". Retrieved 2006-09-04.