Atlanta Braves Franchise Top 10 Managers–#1 Harry Wright

The number one manager on the Atlanta Braves Franchise yop-ten list in its first manager, Harry Wright,
The number one manager on the Atlanta Braves Franchise yop-ten list in its first manager, Harry Wright, / Transcendental Graphics/GettyImages
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The Atlanta Braves franchise began life as the Boston Red Stockings in 1871. The club survived while others failed because of the man who built, played for, and managed it, Harry Wright.

The first manager in the history of the Atlanta Braves Franchise, William Henry “Harry” Wright, was called the father of professional baseball. He built a professional team in Cincinnati that posted a 57-0 record, 64-0 including exhibitions, and 29-0 against professional teams.

The club followed that with a 67-6-1 record (27-6-1 against professional teams) in 1870, but after losing a game, fans stopped coming to see them, the club went broke, and the franchise collapsed.

The NA

Iver W. Adams capitalized on the collapse and brought Harry and his brother George to Boston, where he built a new Red Stockings Franchise. Wright’s new team dominated the fledgling National Association of Professional Base Ball Players League (the NA) so completely that it was often called Harry Wright’s League.

(Wright) arranged all the games and (money) set up the travel schedule, negotiated hotel and railroad bills, negoti­ated player salaries, bought equipment, directed the groundskeeping, handled the media, and promoted Red Stockings games.  It was this ingenuity on and off the field that he brought to Boston, bringing the city a championship-caliber professional team. Boston’s First Nine – the 1871-1875 Boston Red Stockings. page 2

Wright took his team to Canada and convinced the Philadelphia Athletics to join the Red Stockings on the first overseas tour by professional baseball teams. The tour wasn’t the success Wright hoped for, and absent the two teams everyone wanted to watch, the NA’s precarious financial situation worsened.

Wright recognized the NA as a lost cause and switched his attention to the new league that included western clubs. The Red Stockings won the NA championship from 1872-1875 and finished their five seasons in the league with a 225 – 60 record.

The National League Rises

. . . from the ashes of the National Association emerged the Red Stockings’ model of success and the entrepreneurial genius of Chicago’s William Hulbert. John Thorn, “Our Game,” in Total Baseball, 6th ed. (New York: Total Sports, 1999), 5.

The Red Stockings lost many of their key players to the Chicago White Stockings (Cubs) open checkbook. Chicago won the league handily with Wright’s team in fourth, 15 games back.


Wright reversed that situation in 1877, bringing in future Hall of Famer Deacon White and adding pitcher Tommy Bond. White batted a league-leading .387/.405/.545/.950, good for a 193 OPS+.
Jim O’Rourke chipped in with a .362/.407/.445/.852 line and a 165 OPS+, future manager John Morrill added a .302/.319/.649 line and a102 OPS+, and Tommy Bond went 40-17 in 521 IP with a league-best 2.11 ERA, 135 ERA+. The Red Stockings won the Pennant with Chicago 15.5 games out in fifth place.

The #1 manager in Atlanta Braves Franchise history managed the Boston Red Stockings (left) and later the Providence Grays (right.)
The #1 manager in Atlanta Braves Franchise history managed the Boston Red Stockings (left) and later the Providence Grays (right.) / Transcendental Graphics/GettyImages

Lost of Owners Less Money

The Atlanta Braves franchise ownership group changed leadership frequently in the early years, as minority stockholders were added to infuse money, but that couldn’t go on forever.


The economic damage caused by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, the Credit Mobilier Scandal, the Great Boston Fire of 1872, and the collapse of one of the nation’s largest banks hit Boston hard.
Wright’s Bostons repeated their performance in 1878, winning the league with a 41-19 record 4.5 games ahead of Cincinnati.

The team lacked the money to continue adding new players, and veterans jumped to teams offering more money, and the Bostons finished second in 1879, then slumped to sixth in 1880 and 1881. Fans blamed Wright, and tired of being unappreciated in Boston, he turned the team over to John Morrill and left for Providence to manage the Grays.

 An Atlanta Braves Analogy

Today’s world makes it difficult to understand everything Harry Wright did for the franchise. Imagine that the league dissolved and a new league was forming.


You’ve convinced four friends to provide the money and have enough political pull to get a ballpark built in Atlant. You have to find a man – one man – with a reputation beyond reproach, a record getting players to come to a team just because this paragon of virtue is there.


He’s a man who will be involved with the formation of the league, recommending rule changes like moving the mound and guiding the league through the financial woes of a country racked by disaster. Oh, and he’s expected to build and manage teams that win year after year.


Finding such a man in 1869-70 was a tall order, but Harry Wright was the best answer.

Providence Grays Fade to Black

Harry Wright got the best out of the Grays, but they lacked the skill to become champions, and owners lacked the money to pay for the best talent. To offset those issues, Wright came up with the idea of a team of amateurs who would play games at the home field while the Grays were traveling.


He felt this would add a little money and create a better-trained ballplayer who would advance to the Grays when someone was injured or the player was ready to play at a higher level.


It took a few decades to become a reality, but today, every team uses the reserve system, better known as the farm system.

The first shortstop in Atlanta Braves Franchise history was Harry Wright's brother George Wright.
The first shortstop in Atlanta Braves Franchise history was Harry Wright's brother George Wright. / Transcendental Graphics/GettyImages

The Quakers  (Phillies)

After two years at Providence, the club went out of business. Wright Moved to the Philadelphia Quakers – Phillies – and spent the 10 seasons with them even though they often failed to pay the players or their manager.

While managing the Phillies, an illness caused Wright to temporarily lose his sight in May. It gradually returned over time and fully returned in March of 1891. Over the same period, his wife became ill and passed away.


Wright and minority owner John Rogers never got along. Rogers thought he knew a lot about baseball and tried to micromanage Wright . . . that sounds familiar . . . and Rogers made sure the Phillies didn’t renew his contract after the 1893 season, incurring the ire of fans and the local press.

Epilogue

The National League wasn’t happy about the Phillies’ treatment of Wright either, so they created a position called Chief of Umpires that would only last until Wright’s death. It was a way to guarantee Wright some income and keep him in the game. In 1895, Wright and the job died.

Before his death, Wright donated his personal belongings to the league he helped found and nurture. Possibly the first donation of such memorabilia to the league. On April 13, 1896, the National League held Harry Wright Day, with proceeds going towards a memorial. According to his SABR bio, in 1886, a newspaper said Wright was. “undoubtedly the best known baseball man in the country.”

Even Rogers, his determined enemy, declared, “It has therefore truly been said, that so identified was he with the progress and popularity of the game its history is virtually his biography.”

Typical of the BBWAA, they ignored Harry Wright. Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis was unhappy with the BBWAA’s lack of action in every way, so he formed the Pioneer/Executive committee and . . . selected Harry’s brother George to enter the Hall of Fame.

Harry Wright was finally given his long overdue plaque in 1953.

Henry Chadwick wrote of Wright’s death:

“No death among the professional fraternity has occurred which elicited such painful regret. (He was) the most widely known, best respected, and most popular of the exponents and representatives of professional baseball, of which he was virtually the founder.”

That’s a Wrap

No Atlanta Braves manager met and conquered challenges like those Harry Wright faced. The Civil War remained an open wound, and reconstruction hadn’t begun when he built the Boston Red Stockings.


His team dominated the NA with such ease that opposing fans demanded the league Break-Up the Red Stockings. When other teams poached his players, he rebuilt with lesser talents and still won the pennant.


Players and executives of that era knew the name of the father of professional baseball. It was also the name of the manager of the Bostons. Harry Wright.

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