Kaplan: The other Wright brothers: George, Harry, and the team that made baseball famous
From SABR member Jim Kaplan at Seamheads.com on June 14, 2019:
t’s almost too much for the senses to absorb: two precedent-setting Hall of Famers and their team that played coast to coast, beat everyone and sold the country on professional baseball.
George Wright was the Babe Ruth of his day in the 1860s and ’70s, and he went on to become arguably the most versatile sportsman in American history. His brother Harry managed the 1869 Red Stockings to an undefeated 57-0 season (you read that right) while inventing much of the baseball strategy we see today. Topping off this treat like a cherry atop a hot fudge sundae, the Red Stockings were one of the first, and certainly the most proudly open and influential professional team of all time. Their sesquicentennial is being celebrated as we speak.
The magic began, oddly, with cricket. A “fancy wood-turner,” father Sam Wright arrived from England in the mid-1830s along with his wife, the former Annie Fraser, and children including son Harry, who was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, on January 10, 1835. (George was born in Manhattan, New York, on January 26, 1847.) Officially, Sam landed a job as a woodcarver. His real interest was cricket.
Read the full article here: http://seamheads.com/blog/2019/06/14/the-other-wright-brothers-george-harry-and-the-team-that-made-baseball-famous/
Originally published: June 24, 2019. Last Updated: June 24, 2019.