George Wright

George Wright was the best player on baseball's first professional team and one of the most accomplished athletes of the nineteenth century. He played shortstop for the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, who traveled the country and went unbeaten across an entire season. The Centennial Commission elected him to the Hall of Fame in 1937.

Yonkers and the Red Stockings

Wright was born in New York City in 1847. His father, Samuel Wright, was a professional cricketer from Sheffield, England, and both George and his older brother Harry learned bat-and-ball games early. Harry Wright became a prominent figure in baseball's early organization. George became widely regarded as the best player of the 1860s and 1870s.

Harry organized the Cincinnati Red Stockings as baseball's first fully professional team in 1869, and George played shortstop. The Red Stockings traveled approximately 12,000 miles that season, playing against local and regional clubs across the country. They went unbeaten, compiling a 57-0 record with one tie that drew national attention to the sport. George Wright was the team's most productive hitter and its best fielder, playing a position that in the 1860s required bare-handed catches on rough infields.

Boston and the National Association

When the Cincinnati club dissolved after the 1870 season, Harry and George Wright moved to Boston and helped establish the Boston Red Stockings in the National Association, the first professional league. George continued to hit and field at a level that placed him above every other shortstop in the game. The Boston club won four consecutive pennants from 1872 to 1875.

When the National League replaced the National Association in 1876, Wright continued playing in Boston. He hit .299 in the league's inaugural season. He played through 1882, with his skills declining gradually through his thirties.

After the Diamond

Wright's post-playing career included a brief stint managing the Providence Grays and a long involvement in sporting goods. He opened a sporting goods business in 1871, and Henry Ditson joined him as a partner around 1879. Wright and Ditson manufactured tennis and athletic equipment and became one of the most prominent suppliers in the Northeast. Wright also became a respected figure in the early development of tennis and golf in the United States.

He lived longer than almost any other figure from baseball's first generation, dying on August 21, 1937, in Boston, at age 90. The Centennial Commission elected him to the Hall of Fame that same year, alongside Ban Johnson, Connie Mack, John McGraw, and Morgan Bulkeley. Wright was one of the last surviving connections to the game as it existed before professional leagues.