George Wright

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/2470/george-wright

Hall of Fame Major League Baseball Player. Born in Yonkers, New York, he was a shortstop on baseball's first openly all-professional team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, when he hit 49 home runs in 57 games and batted an astounding .633 average. For twelve seasons, he played with the Boston Red Stockings 1871 to 1875, Boston Red Caps 1876 to 1878, 1880 to 1881 and the Providence Grays 1879 and 1882. He end his career with 866 hits, 665 runs scored, 11 homeruns, 326 runs batted in and a .301 batting average. Wright was the founder of the Wright and Ditson Sporting Goods Company and is also credited with setting up New England's first nine-hole golf course, Boston's Franklin Park in 1890. He died at age 90 in Boston, Massachusetts and was inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame the same year of his death.

https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/wright-george

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wright_(sportsman)

George Wright (January 28, 1847 – August 21, 1937) was an American shortstop in professional baseball. He played for the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first fully professional team, when he was the game's best player. He then played for the Boston Red Stockings, helping the team win six league championships from 1871 to 1878. His older brother Harry Wright managed both Red Stockings teams and made George his cornerstone. George was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. After arriving in Boston, he also entered the sporting goods business. There he continued in the industry, assisting in the development of golf.

Cricket

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, 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 tourists in check. In 1892, Wright donated cricket gear to British Guianese (Guyana) cricket players, thereby starting a century-old tradition of West Indian cricket in New England.

Golf

Wright laid out New England's – and America's – first public golf course, Boston's Franklin Park in 1890. Wright and Ditson Sporting Goods imported and sold golf clubs; early U.S. Open champion Francis Ouimet worked at the store while pursuing his amateur career. Wright later donated the 156 acres (0.63 km2), the former Grew estate, for Boston's second municipal course which became the Donald Ross-designed George Wright Golf Course located in the Hyde Park section of Boston.

Baseball legacy

George Wright served on the 1906–1907 Mills Commission that—despite a complete lack of historical evidence—determined that Cooperstown, New York was the birthplace of baseball. President Mills and secretary Sullivan probably did the work, with the others lending gravity and celebrity. (The commission's determination has never been taken seriously by baseball historians and scholars.)

Wright accompanied the United States contingent to the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden where demonstrations of baseball, involving American track and field athletes and a team of Swedish players, were held. Wright umpired one of the games and provided instruction in the game for the Swedish players. Jim Thorpe, winner of the pentathlon and decathlon at that year's Olympics and a future Major League Baseball player, was one of the American players participating in the baseball exhibitions.

Wright was 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 to the Hall of Fame in 1937, he died in Boston of a stroke, aged 90. He is buried in Holyhood Cemetery, in Brookline, Massachusetts.