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. He remains the only man to win the pennant in his lone season as manager. 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.
In 1882 George Wright took up cricket seriously again with the Longwood Cricket Club of Boston where he dominated local cricket sides with Isaac Chambers, the Longwood cricket pro and greenskeeper, holding up the other bowling end. In 1891 George Wright captained the Longwood Cricket Club against Lord Hawke's visiting English side. Wright's side surprised the visiting English first-class players with accurate bowling which kept the tourist in check. In 1892 George Wright donated cricket gear to British Guianese (Guyana) cricket players thereby starting a century old tradition of West Indian cricket in New England.Citation:David Sentance Cricket in America-research in progress for a second edition.
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