George for 1871. The new Red Stockings team just missed winning the first National Association pennant. George suffered a broken leg and missed half the season; one more win 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. Wright holds the NA career record for the most triples (41), and he led the NA in triples with 15 in 1874. On April 22, 1876, Wright became the first batter in National League history, and grounded out to the shortstop. Boston trailed badly in the first NL season after the defection of its Big Four western players to Chicago, but rebounded to win again both 1877 and 1878. George Wright had played an even decade for Harry's teams. 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, wrestling the championship for himself from older brother Harry; for Providence and Rhode Island from older and regionally dominant Boston and Massachusetts. However, 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 played another season full-time, retiring after the 1882 season with a .301 batting average in the major leagues from 1871. After Ditson died in 1891, Spalding purchased Wright & Ditson Co in Feb 1892. The name Wright & Ditson Co continued to be used several years after the purchase. 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.