George Wright (baseball)

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George Wright (January 28, 1847 – August 21, 1937) played shortstop for the original Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first fully professional baseball team, when he was probably the game's best player.

He was one of five men to play regularly for both the Cincinnati and the Boston Red Stockings, the latter winning six championships during his eight seasons to 1878. On April 22, 1876, he became the first batter in National League history, and grounded out to the shortstop. Elder brother Harry Wright managed both Red Stockings teams and made George his cornerstone; the brothers are now in the Hall of Fame together. George helped define the shortstop position and on-field teamwork but his main work as a sporting developer came after retiring from baseball. After arriving in Boston he had entered the sporting goods business, soon under the name Wright & Ditson's. There he continued in the industry, assisting in the development of golf, tennis, and hockey.[1][citation needed]

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Born 1847 in Yonkers, New York, twelve years younger than Harry, George Wright was raised as a cricket "club pro", assisting their father as Harry had done. Before George's birth, Samuel Wright's St. George Cricket Club moved from Manhattan across the Hudson River to Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey, where many New York and New Jersey base ball clubs would play in the 1850s. Both boys learned base ball, too, but George grew up with the "national game" and he was barely in his teens when the American Civil War curtailed its boom; Harry was already twenty-two when the baseball fraternity convened for the first time and thirty when the war ended.

[edit] Amateur era

At some times during the war, both Wright brothers played for the venerable Gothams, the second eldest baseball team after the Knickerbockers. According to Ivor-Campbell (1996), George moved from the Gotham juniors to the senior team when he was fifteen. At seventeen in 1864 he was the regular catcher. Baseball's recovery from the War was far advanced in greater New York City (always untouched by the military conflict), as the leading clubs played more than twenty NABBP matches, the Gothams eleven. George played eight and led the team both in runs, scoring 2.4 times per game, and "hands lost", put out only 2.4 times per game, average being three per player in a 9-inning game. In seven matches infielder Harry was fourth in scoring at 2.0 and second behind George in hands lost at 2.6 (Wright 2000: 91). For the 1865 season George was hired by the Philadelphia Cricket Club; that summer he played in five matches for the Olympic Ball Club of that city. The Olympic club was the devoted to games in the base ball genus, established in 1833. At the December annual meeting, the first in peacetime, National Association of Base Ball Players membership tripled, including isolated clubs from as far as Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and Chattanooga, Tennessee. George returned to the Gothams for base ball; he was nineteen and nearing his athletic peak. At the same time, Harry moved to Cincinnati for a job at the Union Cricket Club.

Early in the summer of 1866, George moved from catcher for Gotham, which would play eight NABBP matches that year, to shortstop for Union, which would play 28, the leading number. The Unions of Morrisania, now in the New York borough of the Bronx, were another charter member of the first Association, but one that moved toward professionalism in the postwar years, as the Gothams did not. In 1867, he joined the Nationals of Washington, DC, eldest club in that city, whose approach to professionalism was arranging government jobs, mainly with the Treasury. He played second base, shortstop, and pitcher in 29 of the 30 matches fully on record and in those matches led the team both in scoring and hands lost. Next year he returned to the Unions for the association's last officially all-amateur season and moved permanently to the shortstop position.

[edit] Cincinnati

Meanwhile, brother Harry had acquired baseball duties and had organized for Cincinnati the strongest team in the West, led in 1868 by a handful of players from the East -- presumably compensated somehow by club members if not by the club. When the NABBP permitted professionalism for 1869, Harry augmented himself and four incumbents with five new men including brother George, who was highest paid at $1400 for nine months. George remained a cornerstone of Harry's teams for ten seasons.

Cincinnati toured the continent undefeated in 1869, as George batted .633 with 49 home runs in 57 games. It may have been the strongest team in 1870, but the club dropped professional base ball after the second season.

[edit] New England

Harry Wright was hired to organize a new team in Boston, where he signed three teammates including George for 1871. He brought along the nickname, too; if the nickname is the tenth man or the player-manager counts double, Harry thereby composed half the team that just missed winning the first National Association pennant. George suffered a broken leg and missed half the season; one more win at the right time would have been decisive in Boston's favor.

With some personnel changes, the Boston Red Stockings won the other four NA pennants, dominating so severely in 1875 that they helped provoke a new league. The team trailed badly in the first National League season, after the defection of its Big Four western players to Chicago, but rebounded to win again both 1877-78. George Wright had played an even decade for Harry's teams, beginning with the First Nine and closing with six league championships in seven. (Another 1869 hire, Andy Leonard, was present for all but the 1871 second-place finish.)

The Providence Grays, new in the NL for 1878, hired George to lead the team in 1879. He did as well as possible, wresting the championship for himself from older brother Harry; for Providence and Rhode Island from older and regionally dominant Boston and Massachusetts.

But Wright & Ditson Sporting Goods was growing, so George returned to Boston for business reasons. Meanwhile the National League introduced the reserve list system, and Providence listed George, so he was not free to sign with Boston. (Until the 1879-80 off-season, every professional baseball player was a "free agent" for every season.) During the next two seasons he played only a few games.. When Boston changed managers for 1882, Harry signed to lead Providence and inherited the right to sign his brother. George agreed to play another season full-time, retiring after the 1882 season with a .302 batting average in the major leagues from 1871.

Baseball Hall of Fame
George Wright
is a member of
the Baseball
Hall of Fame

George was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937 and inducted by the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2005. Elder brother Harry is another member of both Halls. Unfortunately, the official National "Hall of Fame Biography" of George credits him with "piloting" six championship teams in Boston, which was Harry's achievement, beside managing his one Providence champion (NBHOFM a).[2] Younger brother Sam Wright also played baseball professionally, with brief appearances in the major leagues.

George Wright served on the 1906-1907 Mills Commission that identified Cooperstown, New York as the birthplace of baseball. President Mills and secretary Sullivan probably did the work, with the others lending gravity and celebrity.

He lived long enough to be consulted regarding the baseball centennial celebrations of 1939, including the establishment of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown. Soon after his own election, he died in Boston of a stroke, aged 90. He is buried in Holyhood Cemetery, Brookline, Massachusetts.

[edit] Career Statistics

[edit] Playing Statistics

Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG
1871 Boston Red Stockings 16 80 33 33 7 5 0 11 6 1 .412 .453 .625
1872 Boston Red Stockings 48 255 87 86 16 6 2 32 3 1 .337 .345 .471
1873 Boston Red Stockings 59 325 99 126 19 8 3 50 8 2 .388 .402 .523
1874 Boston Red Stockings 60 313 76 103 10 15 2 44 5 6 .329 .340 .476
1875 Boston Red Stockings 79 408 106 136 20 7 2 61 2 6 .333 .337 .431
1876 Boston Red Caps 70 335 72 100 18 6 1 34 8 9 .299 .315 .397
1877 Boston Red Caps 61 290 58 80 15 1 0 35 9 15 .276 .298 .334
1878 Boston Red Caps 59 267 35 60 5 1 0 12 6 22 .225 .242 .251
1879 Providence Grays 85 388 79 107 15 10 1 42 13 20 .276 .299 .374
1880 Boston Red Caps 1 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250 .250 .250
1881 Boston Red Caps 7 25 4 5 0 0 0 0 3 1 .200 .286 .200
1882 Providence Grays 46 185 14 30 1 2 0 9 4 36 .162 .180 .189
Career 591 2875 665 867 126 61 11 330 67 119 .302 .317 .399

[edit] Managerial Statistics

Year Team G W L Pct
1879 Providence Grays 85 59 25 .702
Career 85 59 25 .702

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Find A Grave lists simply him as "Baseball player, Hall of Famer. Golf course builder." The construction of George Wright Municipal Golf Course was a minor event in the history of public space, a conversion of part of Frederick Law Olmsted-designed park.
  2. ^ George Wright's official plaque (NBHOFM b) navigates the need for extreme brevity without making the same blunder but it may have confused the recent author of the Biography.

[edit] References

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