Baseball's First Professional
Manager
By HAROLD SEYMOUR*
It is fairly common knowledge that Ohio
holds the distinction
of fielding the first admittedly
professional team in baseball his-
tory, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.1 It
is less well known that the
manager of that famous team was perhaps
the outstanding baseball
figure of his time. Harry Wright's
career spanned the amateur and
early professional periods of baseball
and provided a link between
the two. He glimpsed the possibilities
of transforming a simple,
amateur game into a paying business
enterprise. Yet he never com-
pletely shed the amateur code and
remained an honest and con-
scientious leader in an era of abuses.
This pioneer of America's "national
game" was born an English-
man, and began his athletic career not
in baseball but in cricket.2
Wright came to this country as a baby
from Sheffield, England,
where his father, Samuel Wright, had
been a celebrated cricket
player. In 1856, when he was twenty-one
years old, Harry became
a full-fledged member of the St. George
Cricket Club of Staten
Island, New York. Two years later he
joined the Knickerbocker
* Harold Seymour, a former professor of
history, until recently was executive vice
president of a Cleveland business organization. His
article is based in part upon a Ph.D.
thesis now in preparation under the
direction of Professor Paul W. Gates at Cornell
University.
1 For a general account of early
Cincinnati baseball history, see Harry Ellard,
Base Ball in Cincinnati, A History (Cincinnati, 1907), and a clipping dated August
21, 1870, in Volume XIX of the Henry
Chadwick Scrapbooks in the New York
Public Library. A recent popular account
is Lee Allen, The Cincinnati Reds (New
York, 1948).
2 Except where otherwise indicated,
biographical information is based on the
Dictionary of American Biography's sketch and an obituary in the New York Times,
October 4, 1895. His full name was
William Henry Wright.
406
BASEBALL'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL
MANAGER 407
Base Ball Club,3 the first
organized baseball team of which there
is any evidence.4
The Knickerbockers were an aggregation
of gentlemen--profes-
sional men, merchants, and white-collar
workers--who gathered
regularly for baseball matches among
themselves and occasionally
with other nines. They looked upon
baseball as an opportunity for
recreation, social intercourse, and
genteel relaxation. Organized like
any social or fraternal body, they had
an elaborate constitution and
set of by-laws; and in 1845 they drew up
the first comprehensive,
written rules of play, which have
continued to be the basic, familiar
features of modern baseball.5
For a time Wright was torn between his
first love, cricket, and
the new fad, baseball, with the result
that he missed many of the
Knickerbocker meetings6 and
the club could not depend on him.7
But there was never any question of
Harry Wright's value to a
baseball team. When he did play, Harry
was a member of the first
nine; and Mr. M. Davis, a fellow member,
volunteered to withdraw
whenever Wright could play.8 Upon
one occasion, the Knicker-
bockers even postponed a game until a
later day because of his
absence from the city.9
Like most players, Harry had both strong
points and weaknesses
on the field. Although he was a fine
"general player" and covered
center field "very
effectively," he was a rather "poor thrower and
runner."10 Neither was
he a superior batter, but he sometimes
3 "Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of
New York Club Book, 1854-1859 and 1859-
1868," two volumes of manuscript in
the New York Public Library.
4 The Olympic Club of Philadelphia was
organized about 1833, but this was a
"town ball" as distinguished
from a "base ball" club. See Charles A. Peverelly, The
Book of American Pastimes, Containing
a History of the Principal Base-Ball, Cricket,
Rowing, and Yachting Clubs of the
United States (New York, 1866),
472-474; and
Henry Chadwick, The Game of Baseball (New
York, 1868), 9, 10.
5 In addition to the Knickerbocker Club
Book cited in footnote 3 above, see the
"Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of
New York Game Book, 1845-1866" (in five
volumes) and the "By-Laws,
Regulations and Rules of the Knickerbocker Base Ball
Club of New York" (New York, 1858),
both in manuscript in the New York Public
Library.
6 Knickerbocker Club Book,
1859-1868.
7 Ibid., pp. 213-214.
8 Ibid., 214.
9 Ibid., 222.
10 Birchard A. Hayes's Scrapbook of newspaper clippings on the Cincinnati
Reds
in 1870 in the Hayes Memorial Library
and Museum, Fremont, Ohio.
408 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
batted well in a
close game.11 As a pitcher, he was one of the very
first to use the
change-of-pace strategy.12 Calling him "probably the
trickiest pitcher . .
. in the United States," a contemporary recorded
that his "dew
drops" (slow pitches) were a mystery to the crack
batters of the time.13
He was described as a
tall, good-looking man, who dressed very
neatly and was
"somewhat clerical in appearance."14 Well built (in
his prime he stood
five feet, nine and three-quarter inches tall, and
weighed one hundred
sixty pounds)15 and very graceful, Wright
indeed presented a
striking figure on the field, with his sideburns,
long mustache, and
tuft of beard. During the winter off-season,
when not occupied
with baseball or cricket, he practiced his trade
as a jeweler.
In August 1865 he was
engaged as a player and instructor for
the Union Cricket Club
of Cincinnati at a salary of $1,200.16 In-
sight into Wright's
careful business habits is revealed by his state-
ment of traveling
expenses, dated April 2, 1866:
To Union Cricket Club
Fare & expenses of
Harry Wright, Wife
and Family from New
York to Cincinnati 79.50
Received 100.00
79.50
20.5017
At the time Wright
accepted his new post, Cincinnatians were
already thoroughly
familiar with the game of baseball. Both town
ball and baseball
were known to them at least as early as 1860.18
After the Civil War,
Cincinnati's first regular baseball organization,
11 Ibid.
12 Chadwick Scrapbooks, I, 97. Change-of-pace is the
skillful variation of the speed
of the pitcher's
delivery while using the same throwing motion, in order to upset
the batter's timing,
causing him to swing too soon or too late and consequently with
less effective
results. This is probably the most effective pitching device of any.
13 Hayes Scrapbook.
14 Chadwick
Scrapbooks, XIV.
15 George Wright, Record
of the Boston Base Ball Club Since Its Organization,
with a Sketch of
All Its Players for 1871, 72, 73, 74, and Other Items of Interest
(Boston, 1874), 9.
16 Ellard, Base Ball in Cincinnati, 43.
17 In the Harry Wright Correspondence in the New York
Public Library.
18 Ellard, Base Ball in Cincinnati, 30, 34.
BASEBALL'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL
MANAGER 409
the Live Oak Base Ball Club, was
formed.l9 Shortly thereafter,
in July 1866, the Cincinnati Base Ball
Club, complete with con-
stitution and by-laws, was organized at
a meeting of several promi-
nent citizens in the law offices of
Tilden, Sherman, and Moulton.
Its personnel, composed mostly of
professional men, especially
members of the bar; its alliance with
the local cricket club, many
of whose members joined the baseball
club; the distinct recreational
and social character of its
activity--these determined the early
tone of the Cincinnati organization.
Even its simple membership
form, politely worded in red script,
might have been used by the
Knickerbockers:
Cincinnati ................... 18.....
Dear Sir
At a meeting of the Cincinnati Base Ball
Club
held
..............................................................................
the
.............................day
of
............................18.....
you were duly elected an active member
thereof.
Enclosed you will please find statement
of
Club charges for ensuing year.
By calling upon the Treasurer and paying
same
you will receive member's ticket.
Yours respectfully,
Harry Wright20
The amateur spirit of the Cincinnatis is
perhaps more eloquently
portrayed in an account of the
victorious aftermath of a game won
at Louisville in 1867. To celebrate
their triumph the Red Stockings
held a banquet on shipboard during the
course of the return journey.
The presence of a number of female
passengers on board was so
crucial that
the mind of the captain was very much
exercised lest the exhuberant [sic]
spirits of the victors would disturb his fair passengers,
and he made the request
that there should be no undue noise or
hilarity. With gentlemanly sense of
honor, the victorious Red Stockings
promised faithfully that the strictest
19 An informal group preceded it, the
Buckeye Baseball Club, which had begun as
a town ball team.
20 In Wright Correspondence. For samples
of printed amateur membership forms,
notices of meetings, and notification of
election to office, see Chadwick Scrapbooks,
XXVI.
410
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
decorum should be observed. This banquet
stands on record as being the
most unique, as well as the most silent one ever
celebrated. Voices modulated
to the lowest tone when toasts were
proposed, no clinking glasses gave
forth a sound, while "Hip, hip,
hurrah!" was uttered in the most quiet
manner. Champagne flowed freely, but the
remarkable repression of ebul-
lition of feeling among the Red
Stockings seemed to temper the effect.
The captain afterwards made the remark
that it was the stillest party he
ever saw, where so much wine was
present.21
In those early days, men who could not
leave their business dur-
ing working hours were known to rise at
4 A.M.
in order to
play baseball before
breakfast-"Morning Glories" versus "Wide
Awakes."22 Enthusiasm for baseball in Cincinnati and neighboring
areas may also be gauged by "The
Great Baseball Tournament"
held in September 1867, in which
twenty-four local and outside
teams contested, and which was attended
by "immense" crowds,
including "more than five thousand
ladies."23
In the years immediately following the
Civil War the course of
Cincinnati baseball was not different
from that of other com-
munities. Representatives were sent to
the conventions of the
National Association of Base Ball
Players, which had been or-
ganized in 1857.24 Forty-three Ohio
teams banded together in
September 1867 at Cincinnati to form a
state association.25 That
winter, George F. Sands represented them
as a delegate to the
national association and had the honor
of being elected its
president.26
But the amateur clubs and associations,
which had increased so
rapidly in the post-Civil War years,27
were soon threatened by an
encroaching professionalism. Before its
inexorable onslaught the
21 Ellard, Base Ball in Cincinnati, 44-47.
22 Ibid., 55.
23 Ibid., 55-56.
24 Porter's Spirit of the Times (New York), January 31, 1857.
25 Ellard, Base Ball in Cincinnati, 59-60.
26 "List of Officers of the National Association Since Its Formation
in 1858," in
Constitution and By-Laws of the
National Association of Base Ball Players with the
Rules and Regulations of the Game of
Base Ball for 1869 (New York, 1869),
10.
27 Contemporary baseball guides and minutes of the convention meetings
give figures
on the number of clubs and associations,
but they are in some disagreement on the
exact number of clubs represented each
year.
BASEBALL'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL
MANAGER 411
Knickerbocker spirit of refined
amateurism was doomed. The ab-
sence of stratified class lines and
sufficient leisure made it unlikely
that baseball would become in America
what cricket was in England.
So long as a restricted group plays a
game as an aristocratic diver-
sion, the facade of amateurism can be
maintained as a screen for
keeping out others and for eliminating
the need to compete with
them. But baseball was so inexpensive to
play and its rudiments
so easily learned that it could not for
long remain in the hands
of a small group; and once those who
must also earn a living enter
a sport, it ceases to be a pleasurable
pastime and becomes the serious
business of the masses.28
Another factor in the rise of
professionalism was the rapid growth
of the city in the decades following the
Civil War. The expanding
urban population, eager for diversion
and excitement in the hours
of release from drab, monotonous jobs,29
was a ready market for
those shrewdly prepared to provide
entertainment--including spec-
tator sports--at a price.30
The growing crowds attending games; the
great increase in the
number of teams; and the tours of the
Brooklyn Excelsiors and the
Washington Nationals, which did much to
capture the imagination
of baseball followers--these events,
which occurred under the aegis
of the National Association of Base Ball
Clubs, sharpened baseball
rivalry between communities and whetted
appetites for better teams
capable of playing a better brand of
baseball. The overweening
desire for first-rate teams led these
communities to seek the best
players available. Heretofore, local
talent had comprised the nines;
but rivalry impelled clubs to reach out
nationally for the best
material possible. Local backers and
businessmen began to offer
various inducements in order to secure
superior players. Prizes,31
28 This point is developed at length in
William L. Hughes and Jesse F. Williams,
Sports: Their Organization and
Administration (New York, 1944), 384;
and in
Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, XIV (New York, 1930), 306.
29 For a fuller discussion, see L. P.
Jacks, The Education of the Whole Man (New
York, 1931).
30 See George B. Cutten, The Threat
of Leisure (New Haven, 1926), one of
numerous books and articles on the
problem of leisure-time activities and com-
mercialized amusements.
31 Chadwick Scrapbooks, I, 18.
412
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
gifts, and sinecures32 were
dangled, and salaries were paid sur-
reptitiously.33 Entrepreneurs,
led by William H. Cammeyer of
Brooklyn, began to enclose grounds and
collect "gate money."34
As baseball entered a twilight zone
between amateurism and
outright professionalism, certain evils
accompanied the change.
Tempted by competitive bidding for
their talents, some players
began "revolving," or
shifting from one club to another in response
to better offers, even though they had
already made prior commit-
ments and accepted compensation. In
addition, spectators and players
commenced wagering on the outcome of
contests. From betting, it
was but a short step to
"hippodroming," fixing the outcome of
games beforehand in order to make the
result a certainty.35
Cincinnati, too, was succumbing to the
inroads of professionalism.
Gradually public opinion, which had
been hostile to the idea of
professional play, grew more receptive.
Almost at the outset an
admission charge of ten cents was
levied for home matches and
twenty-five cents for
"foreign."36 A distinct breach was made on
November 22, 1867, when Harry Wright
was hired to play on the
baseball team at the same salary he had
been getting for cricket.
During the season of 1868 three more
paid players appeared with
Cincinnati.37
Then, on the eve of the 1869 season,
Wright's employers directed
him to form the best team possible,
even if it meant paying all the
players. This course was motivated by
the desire to surpass rivals,
the successful experiment of paying
four players, and the sting of
defeat inflicted by the Washington
Nationals, who included Cin-
cinnati in their 1867 tour.
The result was signal in baseball
history. Local amateurs were
ignored as Wright went far afield to
gather the first outright, ad-
32 Albert G. Spalding, America's
National Game: Historic Facts Concerning the
Beginning, Evolution, Development and Popularity of
Baseball, with Personal Remi-
niscences of Its Vicissitudes, Its
Victories and Its Votaries (New York,
1911), 119,
122.
33 Spalding's Official Base Ball
Guide for 1898 (New York, 1898), 5.
34 The American Chronicle of Sports
and Pastimes (New York), February 20,
1868.
35 For an outstanding example, see the New York Clipper, October
19, 1867, and
The Ball Players' Chronicle (New York), October 10, 19, November 7, December
19, 1867.
36 Ellard, Base Ball in Cincinnati, 43.
37 Ibid., 138.
BASEBALL'S
FIRST PROFESSIONAL MANAGER
413
mittedly
professional baseball team in America--the club to be-
come
famous as the Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869-70.38 A grand
total
of $9,300 was paid the nine players and one substitute for
a
lengthy season, which in those days began March 15 and closed
November
15. Included on the squad was Harry's brother George,
a
great shortstop and one of the most intelligent performers of his
day.
The club roster and individual salaries follow:
PLAYER
AND TRADE POSITION SALARY
Harry
Wright (jeweler) Center
Field $1200
George
Wright (engraver) Shortstop 1400
Asa
Brainard (insurance) Pitcher 1100
Fred
Waterman (insurance) Third
Base 1000
Charles
Sweasy (hatter) Second
Base 800
Charles
H. Gould (bookkeeper) First
Base 800
Douglas
Allison (marble cutter) Catcher 800
Andrew
J. Leonard (hatter) Left
Field 800
Calvin
A. McVey (piano maker) Right
Field 800
Richard
Hurley (trade not known) Substitute 60039
In
1869 the Red Stockings demonstrated conclusively the superior-
ity
of a professional team over the amateurs as they proceeded to
defeat
all opponents with ridiculous ease, finishing the season un-
defeated.40
Included in their schedule was an eastern tour, on which
they
accepted all challenges and attracted large crowds.41
Statements
concerning the financial position of the Cincinnati
club
on the eve of their eastern tour are at variance. The club was
reputed
to have derived support from some of Cincinnati's
wealthiest
citizens.42 But the claim has been made that they em-
barked
upon their famous eastern swing in such precarious financial
straits
that one Will Noble, a devoted fan, donated his wife's
three-hundred-dollar
savings to make the trip possible. According
to
this version, the team was barely able to eke out enough gate
38
Only one of the ten, Charles Gould, was a local man.
39
Allen, The Cincinnati Reds, 4.
40
Although there is some disagreement as to the number of victories, the commonly
accepted
figure is fifty-six plus one tied game.
41
The Chadwick Scrapbooks, XIX, and the Hayes Scrapbook contain clippings de-
scribing
their tours.
42
The National Chronicle (New York), October 30, 1869.
414 THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
receipts to pay
transportation from one town to the next, until
they met the New York
Mutuals, the Brooklyn Atlantics, and the
Philadelphia
Athletics, outstanding "amateur" clubs, whence they
reaped richer
rewards.43 An interesting sidelight to the trip, as well
as a foretaste of
modern reporting, was the work of Harry Miller,
an early baseball
writer, who accompanied the Reds and telegraphed
the results of each
game to the Commercial Hotel, where hundreds
of Cincinnati
"cranks"--as fans were then known--awaited his
daily report.44
Withal, the Red
Stockings could not entirely divest themselves
of amateur trappings
and ways. They continued to ride out to the
field in their
decorated carriages, singing their baseball song, two
verses and the chorus
of which follow:
We are a band of
baseball players Our Captain is a goodly man,
From "Cincinnati
City;" And
Harry is his name;
We come to toss the
ball around, Whate'er he
does, 'tis always "Wright,"
And sing to you our
ditty. So says
the voice of fame.
And if you listen to
our song And as the
Pitcher of our nine,
We are about to sing, We think he
can't be beat;
We'll tell you all
about baseball, In many a
fight, old Harry Wright
And make the welkin
ring. Has saved
us from defeat.
CHORUS:
Hurrah! Hurrah!
For the noble game,
Hurrah!
"Red
Stockings" all will toss the ball,
And shout our loud
hurrah.45
Like the
Knickerbockers and their contemporaries, the Red Stock-
ings still found that
baseball often led to the banquet table and
polite social
intercourse. Upon the completion of one of their
triumphant eastern
tours, they arrived in Cincinnati twenty-four
hours before
expected, so that no formal reception had been ar-
ranged in time.
Nevertheless, small boys began to gather at the
43 The Sporting
News (St. Louis), September 17, 1887.
44 Will Durant, The
Story of Baseball (New York, 1949), 21.
45 Written by a
member and sung to the tune of "Bonnie Blue Flag." For the
complete song, see
Ellard, Base Ball in Cincinnati, 91-96.
BASEBALL'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL
MANAGER 415
depot, and "presently dignified
citizens and solid businessmen
mingled with the throng" awaiting the train.
Then, on the way to
the Gibson House, the streets were
filled with cheering people.
The officers of the club were
determined that the return of the
"heroes" should be marked by
"a supper, informal and unfatiguing,
but sufficient to show that their
coming had been anticipated."
At the affair each member of the team
received a bouquet of
flowers and a small square of blue silk
with his name and position
neatly printed thereon in gold. The
newspaper account called the
event "one of the most elegant
ever seen in Cincinnati."46
The success of the Cincinnati Club of
1869 brought quick emu-
lation by others. For instance, in
October of that year the following
announcement appeared in a newspaper
devoted to sports and enter-
tainment:
On the 12th of October, 1869, was
organized in Chicago, the Chicago
Base Ball Club, having for its object
the employment of a picked nine com-
posed of first class professional ball
players. . . . The undersigned hereby
calls the attention of base ball players
to the subject. All professionals de-
sirous of connecting themselves with the
Chicago Club are requested to
address, stating terms as to salary,
etc. and with full understanding that all
communications will be held as strictly
confidential.47
Cincinnati hegemony was short-lived. A
defeat by the Brooklyn
Atlantics, 8-7, after eleven innings of
dramatic play, ended their
long skein of victories and seemed to
take the heart out of the
organization. As attendance at games
fell off,48 the Cincinnati direc-
tors issued a circular stating that it
was impossible even with
stringent economy for them to meet the
"enormous" salaries preva-
lent. They also condemned large
salaries as causing jealousy, ex-
travagance, dissipation, and
insubordination on the part of the
players. They asserted that they were
not going to hire any more
46 Clipping from the Cincinnati Gazette in the Hayes Scrapbook.
47 New York Clipper, October 30, 1869; also cited in "The Chicago Club;
A
History of Its Rise and Progress,"
a manuscript in the Chadwick Scrapbooks, XXVI.
48 Loss of attendance is reflected in
financial figures given by one writer, who placed
assets at $29,726.26, liabilities
$29,724.87, leaving a balance of $1.39 for the season.
Harry Clay Palmer and others, Athletic
Sports in America, England and Australia
(Philadelphia, 1889), 39.
416
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
professionals, and hoped that adequate
amateur talent would
develop.49
The upshot was that the players left for
other teams eager for
their services. The Wright brothers
themselves went to Boston,
where Harry led a famous team, the
Boston Red Stockings, to four
championships in the years 1872-75 in
the new National Asso-
ciation of Professional Base Ball
Players,50 which had superseded
the old amateur association in 1871. He
added two more cham-
pionships to his managerial record in
1877 and 1878 with the
Boston National League Club, thus
compiling the enviable total
of six pennants in seven seasons, a
record unequaled until 1955,
when it was matched by Charles Dillon
"Casey" Stengel, manager
of the New York Yankees.51
Wright was not a "noisy, boisterous
kind of Captain,"52 but
had the ability to inspire his men with
confidence by his "quiet,
persuasive" leadership.53 He
was possibly the first to comprehend
the advantages of teamwork among the
players.54 Working together
"like a nicely adjusted
machine"55 and giving their best throughout
nine innings of play, regardless of the
score, was his formula for
the players to secure the gate receipts
upon which they depended
for their livelihood.56
Nor was Wright averse to using
psychology on his players, al-
though he probably had never heard of
the word. Along with
the team's bats and balls and other
equipment, Wright kept a
"property bouquet," such as he
had seen used in the theater. When
49 New York Clipper, December 3, 1870. Years later an unidentified former director
of the Red Stockings stated in an
interview that the announcement not to have a
professional team was made "as a
bluff to the players." He also said that newspaper
reports of Cincinnati profits were
"wofully exaggerated"; and he, too, attributed the
decline in attendance to the defeat by
the Atlantics. Robert M. DeWitt, DeWitt's
Baseball Guide for 1884 (New York, 1884), 51-52.
50 The Little Red Book of Major League Baseball (New York, 1950),
5.
51 Ibid. Yet Charles B.
Cleveland's book, The Great Baseball Managers (New York,
1950), does not include Wright.
52 In those days the captain was in
charge on the field and had the function of a
modern field manager. Wright's duties
included those of the modern business manager
as well.
53 Hayes Scrapbook.
54 Reach's Official Base Ball Guide
for 1896 (Philadelphia, 1896), 120.
55 Hayes Scrapbook.
56 Harry Wright to Wm. H. Cammeyer,
April 27, 18[?], in the Wright Corre-
spondence. All letters subsequently
referred to are in this collection, unless indicated
otherwise.
BASEBALL'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL
MANAGER 417
one of his players had performed an
unusually meritorious feat,
Harry brought out his floral piece for
presentation, and the news-
paper would dutifully report that the
particular player "was pre-
sented with a splendid floral tribute
yesterday as a reward of his
fine hit." However, this ceremony
became so common that the
"boys" discovered the ruse.57
Although Wright's entrance into
athletics had been made in a
cricket-Knickerbocker setting, he was one
of the first to envision
the possibilities of baseball as a
paying profession. Constantly
urging a fifty-cent admission price,58
he presented persuasive argu-
ments for his position:
I should prefer you should [charge] 50
cts to all our games in Wash-
ington. It is well worth 50 cts to see a
good game of base ball, and when
the public refuse to pay that, then good
bye base ball. They do not object
to paying 75 cts to $1.50 to go to the
theatre, and numbers prefer base ball
to theatricals. We must make the games
worth witnessing and there will be
no fault found with the price of
admission. A good game is worth 50 cts,
a poor one is dear at 25 cts.59
When he took his team on the road,
Wright usually asked the
home club for a $150 guarantee, or
sixty percent of the gate re-
ceipts.60 Once a Canadian
team tried to coax a game with Wright's
Boston Red Stockings by offering other
attractions in lieu of coin.
Careful business manager that he was,
Wright refused to be diverted
from cash considerations and replied
tactfully: "As you say, we
are 'not much on cognac etc.,' and I
can assure you we prefer a
good game and big gate receipts to
'Hail, Columbia,' 'Won't go
home till morn.,' and 'all that sort of
thing you know.'"61
Neither did Wright neglect the
opportunity to rent the grounds
of the Boston team to other local
professional clubs in return for
one-third of their net receipts when
his own club was traveling
abroad.62 Occasionally, in a
Canadian town where to do so promised
57 Chicago Tribune, June 23,
1878.
58 For example, Harry Wright to E. M.
Potter, May 31, 18[?].
59 Harry Wright to Nick Young, March 28,
1873.
60 Harry Wright to A. A. Miller, April 14, 18[?].
61 Harry Wright to Thomas Goldie, July
16, 1872.
62 Harry Wright to a Mr. Rogers,
February 13, 1871.
418
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to boost the gate receipts, the Bostons
also tried their hand at
cricket, even though Wright and his
brother George were the only
ones who knew the game.63 When
planning road trips, Harry
shrewdly negotiated with hotels in
advance, letting them know that
he would accept only the best
inducement.64 His eighteen volumes
of note and account books are a
surviving testimonial to Wright's
business acumen and his careful
attention to financial details.
Included in the host of entries is a
particularly interesting group
which would appear to indicate that in
the 1860's Wright had a
farm and dabbled in the sale of eggs,
poultry, and cricket goods.
Among the items listed are "Fowls
on Hand," "Eggs Set," and
"Eggs Sold." He also kept
horses and a pig. His "Winter Pro-
visions" included two barrels of
potatoes and one of turnips, and
two bales of clover hay. He even
records the death of a billy goat
and several hens, one of them from
"apoplexy."65
In those simpler days, when even the
professionals did not have
highly specialized administrative
personnel, the manager not only
directed the team on the field but
looked after the general business
details of running the club. Wright's
considerable correspondence,
dealing with many aspects of baseball,
from arranging games and
planning tours to telling how to care
for a diamond, illustrates
both his versatility and his stature in
the baseball world. Young
hopefuls wrote for his advice, and
interested fans offered sug-
gestions. To one who had written asking
how to become a ball
player, Wright recommended that he
"eat hearty--Roast Beef rare
will do," and that he live
"regularly," keep good hours, and abstain
from intoxicating drink and tobacco. He
went on to say that a
professional must learn to be a
"sure catch; a good thrower, strong
and accurate; a reliable batter and
good runner; all to be brought
out, if in you, by steady and
persevering practise."66 The game has
changed; techniques have developed and
become highly specialized;
but the fundamental requisites of a
good ball player laid down by
old Harry Wright still obtain.
63 Harry Wright to Secretary of Dauntless Base Ball Club, 1872.
64 Harry Wright to a Mr. Eastman, May 20, 18[?].
65 "Note and
Account Books of Harry Wright, Base Ball Manager, 1860-1893,"
in the New York Public Library.
66 Harry Wright to Charles H. Tubbs, December 2, 1874.
BASEBALL'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL
MANAGER 419
Another player, John Clapp, wrote
outlining his experience and
asking for a chance to show his prowess.
Wright's reply is in-
teresting and illuminating. He remarked
that Clapp seemed very
confident of holding his own in any
position with the best of
them--"the kind of player I
want"--but that he wished to ask
a few more questions. Wright wanted to
know what kind of pitch-
ing did Clapp catch the previous year
and how fast was it; what
other position did he play; did Clapp
think he could play third
base; was he confident he could
"catch a swift pitcher" like Albert
G. Spalding "up to or close
behind" the striker; was he able to
fill in satisfactorily for any of the
infielders who might be injured;
could he bat swift pitching with
confidence; was he prepared to
come at his own risk and show what he
could do?67
Wright had great respect for the game of
baseball; he looked
upon it as a profession in which young
men might engage without
apology.68 In 1871 when the
Athletics of Philadelphia won the
championship--the first under the new
professional association--
they displayed their pennant in a local
saloon. Wright's attitude
toward the game is revealed in his
comment on this incident. After
deploring the action of the Athletics,
he said the proper place to
exhibit the pennant was in their own
clubhouse, because
to elevate the National Game we must
earn the respect of all; and now the
Athletics are Champions--first legal and
recognized Champion of the
United States--they will be looked up to
as the exponents of what is right
and wrong in base ball, and will have it
in their power, in a great measure,
to make the game a success--financially
and otherwise.69
Wright's insistence upon sobriety and
good physical condition
was a bright exception during a period
of laxity and widespread
drunkenness among players. In addition
to being mechanically
skilled performers, he expected his men
to be "gentlemanly and
temperate at all times."70 Another
reflection of his feelings toward
the infant profession was provided by
his answer to a player who
67 Harry Wright to J. E. Clapp, January 18, 1872.
68 Harry Wright to a Mr. Rogers, March
11, 18[?]; also Harry Wright to Nick
Young, April 21, 18[?].
69 Harry Wright to E. Hicks Hayhurst, December 26, 18[?].
70 Harry Wright to J. E. Clapp, January 18, 1872.
420
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
wrote him asking permission to report
two or three days late for
spring training. Harry refused with the
simple statement, "Pro-
fessional ball playing is a business,
and as such, I trust you will
regard it while the season lasts."71
While Harry was aware of the evils of
"revolving," he never-
theless realized that team managers who
lured players away from
other clubs shared responsibility for
the broken contracts, and he
suggested that they be penalized.72
At the same time, he criticized
Henry Chadwick, the first outstanding
baseball reporter, for over-
emphasizing the shortcomings of the
game. Baseball would be
better off, said Wright, "if at
times he [Chadwick] said less about
'suspicious play,' 'crooked players'
etc.," because the public got the
idea that all games were crooked and
came to regard everything
with suspicion.73 Chadwick,
added Wright caustically, "also uses
words he doesn't understand."74
A memorable exploit in Wright's career
was the tour of England
made by his own Boston Red Stockings in
company with the
Athletics of Philadelphia. The two
squads sailed July 16, 1874, on
none other than the S.S. Ohio. George
Wright tells us:
The trip was a fortunate one as far as
accidents were concerned. Nothing
serious occurred except on our arrival
at Liverpool, where we were taken
from the steamer Ohio in a small
tug-boat, when upon our nearing the
dock, Captain Harry being anxious to be
the first to land in old England,
made a jump from the tug to the dock,
with a satchel in each hand, striking
fair upon his feet, but both slipped
from under him, as the boards were
wet from rain, and he landed in England
solid.75
The Americans played baseball with each
other and cricket against
English teams. A social highlight of the
trip was an invitation to
visit Chatsworth, ancestral seat of the
Duke of Devonshire, dubbed
"His Royal Nibs" by the
Americans.76 Few of the baseball players
71 Harry Wright to a Mr. Rogers, March
11, 1872.
72 Harry Wright to W. A. Hulbert,
December 29, 1874.
73 Harry Wright to William Hulbert,
postscript of letter, January 24, 1876.
74 Ibid.
75 George Wright, George Wright's
Book for 1875 (Boston, 1875), 24.
76 The Chadwick Scrapbooks contain
clippings describing the English tour of the
Boston Club.
BASEBALL'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL
MANAGER 421
knew anything about cricket; they paid
no heed to proper "form,"
and much to Harry Wright's discomfiture,
proceeded to smash the
ball all over the field--winning every
match.77
After completing his player-manager
career with the Boston Red
Stockings in 1878, Wright continued to
pilot the club until he
assumed leadership of the Providence
Club in 1882. After two
seasons there, he was signed to manage
the Philadelphia Nationals,
where he remained until the close of his
managerial career in 1893.78
Harry Wright's influence and
contribution extended beyond his
own team. He accepted the invitation of
William A. Hulbert and
Charles A. Fowle to attend the New York
meeting of February 2,
1876, where he acted as secretary pro
tem during the deliberations
which resulted in the formation of the
present National League.79
According to Abraham G. Mills, one-time
president of the league,
Wright took an active and useful part in
framing legislation during
the league's early years when team
managers were still admitted
to its councils.80
As early as 1874 Wright was being called
"Father of the Game."
He wrote that he objected to such a
title because it made him feel
old.81 Good humoredly, he
added that it was enough that he was
now father of a seventh
"bawler," and he therefore suggested Henry
Chadwick for the role. Wright also had
the dubious distinction of
being probably the only baseball man in
the history of the game
to read his own obituary. In 1876 he was
mistakenly reported de-
ceased by the Cincinnati Enquirer.82
The eulogy printed was so
flattering that, after the error became
known, another newspaper
twitted:
Well, if Harry ain't dead, he ought to
be, so that he could fully enjoy
all the nice things that have been said
about him, otherwise they are wasted.
77 Harry Wright to James M. Ferguson, January 5, 18[?].
78 Hy Turkin and S. C. Thompson, The
Official Encyclopedia of Baseball (New
York, 1951), 345.
79 For Wright's acceptance, see Wright to William A. Hulbert and Charles A.
Fowle, January 24, 1876.
80 A. G. Mills to Henry Chadwick,
December 19, 1893, in the Abraham G. Mills
Papers, in the National Baseball Hall of
Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New
York.
81 Harry Wright to William Hulbert,
December 29. 1874.
82 Chadwick Scrapbooks, XIII.
422
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
After a man's obituary is published in
the Enquirer it is time he ceased
to live if he knows anything about the
proprieties.83
In similar vein, a baseball reporter
wrote: "Harry Wright still con-
tinues to die one day and recover the
next. Let him alone and he'll
come home, wagging his bat behind
him."84
When he retired from active duty in
1894, his contribution to
baseball was well expressed as follows:
Every magnate in the country is indebted
to this man for the establish-
ment of base ball as a business, and
every patron for furnishing him with
a systematic recreation. Every player is indebted to
him for inaugurating an
occupation by which he gains a
livelihood, and the country at large for
adding one more industry (for industry
it is in one respect) to furnish
employment.85
Recognizing this, the National League
created an honorary post--
chief of umpires86--for Harry
Wright at a salary of $2,000;87 and
he did make several tours of inspection
in this capacity.88
In 1895 he died of pneumonia. Thousands
thronged Philadelphia
streets the day of his funeral. In
somewhat questionable taste, floral
offerings carried such baseball phrases
as "Safe at Home" and "All
Out."89 The major league
owners were highly cognizant of his
stature and his right to the title of
"Father of Professional Baseball."
On April 13, 1896, during the season
following his death, "Harry
Wright Day" was held by the
National League to raise funds for
a monument.90 Veteran
players, Wright's contemporaries, came out
of retirement to play commemorative
games in various cities, in-
cluding Cincinnati, which did not forget
its idol of memorable Red
Stocking days.91 Because of
bad weather, receipts totaled only a
83 Ibid.
84 St. Louis Republican, quoted in
the Chicago Tribune, April 9, 1876.
85 Sporting Life (Philadelphia),
quoted in a clipping in the Albert G. Spalding
Scrapbooks of baseball clippings,
1874-1911, in the New York Public Library.
86 Reach Guide for 1896, 117.
87 Spalding Scrapbooks, VI, 13.
88 Sporting Life, November 2,
1895.
89 Ibid., October 12, 1895.
90 Reach Guide for 1896, 119.
91 Sporting Life, April 18, 1896.
BASEBALL'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL
MANAGER 423
disappointing $3,349.79.92 However, the
league went ahead with
plans and supplemented the funds out of
its own coffers at the
end of the season.93
Finally, a league tribute to him was
spread on the minutes: "Had
he greatness? . . . In the higher
meaning he was truly great."94
Astonishingly, modern baseball's chief
executives, until very re-
cently, overlooked Harry Wright when
they selected the foremost
"Builders of Baseball" from
among nineteenth-century players for
a place in the National Baseball Hall of
Fame and Museum at
Cooperstown, New York. It was not until
September 28, 1953, that
he was at last given proper
recognition.95
92 Reach Guide for 1896, 95.
93 Ibid., 96.
94 Ibid., 119-120.
95 Sporting News, October 17, 1953.
Baseball's First Professional
Manager
By HAROLD SEYMOUR*
It is fairly common knowledge that Ohio
holds the distinction
of fielding the first admittedly
professional team in baseball his-
tory, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.1 It
is less well known that the
manager of that famous team was perhaps
the outstanding baseball
figure of his time. Harry Wright's
career spanned the amateur and
early professional periods of baseball
and provided a link between
the two. He glimpsed the possibilities
of transforming a simple,
amateur game into a paying business
enterprise. Yet he never com-
pletely shed the amateur code and
remained an honest and con-
scientious leader in an era of abuses.
This pioneer of America's "national
game" was born an English-
man, and began his athletic career not
in baseball but in cricket.2
Wright came to this country as a baby
from Sheffield, England,
where his father, Samuel Wright, had
been a celebrated cricket
player. In 1856, when he was twenty-one
years old, Harry became
a full-fledged member of the St. George
Cricket Club of Staten
Island, New York. Two years later he
joined the Knickerbocker
* Harold Seymour, a former professor of
history, until recently was executive vice
president of a Cleveland business organization. His
article is based in part upon a Ph.D.
thesis now in preparation under the
direction of Professor Paul W. Gates at Cornell
University.
1 For a general account of early
Cincinnati baseball history, see Harry Ellard,
Base Ball in Cincinnati, A History (Cincinnati, 1907), and a clipping dated August
21, 1870, in Volume XIX of the Henry
Chadwick Scrapbooks in the New York
Public Library. A recent popular account
is Lee Allen, The Cincinnati Reds (New
York, 1948).
2 Except where otherwise indicated,
biographical information is based on the
Dictionary of American Biography's sketch and an obituary in the New York Times,
October 4, 1895. His full name was
William Henry Wright.
406