The following year (which was also the first season of the all-professional National Association), local brick factory owner Dewitt Clinton Sage presented the Mansfields with a portion of his property "near the shirt factory, five minutes walk from the McDonough House (famous hotel on Main Street), for their free use as a base ball ground for five years."
When the 1872 season dawned, the Mansfields fully expected to remain an amateur club; they had played matches against pro teams on occasion, but had never beaten one.
The Mansfield club[1] was managed by catcher John Clapp and featured such players as future Hall of Fame outfielder Jim O'Rourke, then a 21-year-old rookie.
Clearly, Mansfield did not have the talent to compete with the big professional clubs; a pair of June victories over the woeful (3–26) Brooklyn Eckfords bumped their record up to five wins against nine losses, but Middletown would lose their last ten contests to finish 5–19, in eighth place.
Ultimately, the obstacles for a small city like Middletown (with a population of less than seven thousand) to operate and compete against big-city teams were too daunting, so on August 14, 1872, the Mansfield club closed their books and ended their only major league season.