Atlanta Braves podcast S3E3: a great story you’ve never heard before

BOSTON, MA - 1874: The Champion Boston Red Stockings pose for a team portrait in 1874 in Boston, Massachusetts. They are: Top row - Cal McVey, Al Spalding, Deacon White, and Ross Barnes. Bottom row - Jim O'Rourke, Andy Leonard, George Wright, Harry Wright, George Hall, Harry Schaeffer, and Tommy Beals. (Photo Reproduction by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - 1874: The Champion Boston Red Stockings pose for a team portrait in 1874 in Boston, Massachusetts. They are: Top row - Cal McVey, Al Spalding, Deacon White, and Ross Barnes. Bottom row - Jim O'Rourke, Andy Leonard, George Wright, Harry Wright, George Hall, Harry Schaeffer, and Tommy Beals. (Photo Reproduction by Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)

It’s a story 150 years in the making… and more.  It’s about the Atlanta Braves and it started well before any of us were even born.

We know of some of the giants of the Atlanta Braves franchise through the years.  Recent contributors like Chipper Jones, Bobby Cox, Hank Aaron.

Going back further, there’s such players as Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn.  We’ve even written occasionally about heroes of the “ancient” Boston Braves teams such as Rabbit Maranville and Kid Nichols.

Atlanta Braves
Harry Wright, outfielder and manager for the Boston Red Stockings, poses for a portrait in 1872. (Photo by Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics, Getty Images)

After you hear this story, though, you might well think of Harry Wright as the most significant of all… and you probably should.

This week, we have a special podcast treat for you.  Senior writer Fred Owens has put together a history lesson about this true baseball pioneer… one who created the club that we now know as the Atlanta Braves.

The story includes a lot of triumphs.  It also includes a lot of setbacks.  But through it all, there was a character about Harry Wright that was such strong that it managed to transcend and overcome a lot of the shady business of professional sports in his era.

As such, Wright was probably the most respected sportsman of his generation… and perhaps (at least) the next as well.  Fred tells his story for you to hear today.

The podcast can be directly downloaded via this link.

You can also get it from any number of subscription outlets, or you can just clock on the player below:

So take a few minutes — I promise, this one is short! — to check out this baseball history lesson that Fred has led for us.

It’s a story that will stick with you… and that’s a good thing, for it’s a story that needs to be told, re-told, and remembered.

We neglect our own history to our own peril, for those making history often went to great lengths to establish the legacies that lead to what we know today.

This also puts into perspective the current labor squabbling… quite well, in fact.  Thanks, Harry… and thanks to Fred for telling his story.

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