1881 Harry Wright Personal Scorebook with Multiple Signatures! Wright's contributions to the early development of our National pastime place him right alongside Cartwright and Doubleday as one of baseball's most noteworthy pioneers. He was center fielder for the the first professional ball club, the 1876 Cincinnati Red Stockings, invented the box scoring system, designed the standard baseball uniform and was the first to direct his defense to shift in relation to hitters' tendencies. Yet despite his indisputable importance to the game, most Hall of Fame autograph collections find him sadly absent, certainly due to the great scarcity of available specimens born of the eleven decades that have passed since Wright did.
But here we offer a veritable mother lode of Wright autographs, finding a home on the most desirable and thoroughly significant home they possible could, his own personal "Base Ball Score Book." It is meticulously utilized to track twenty-two games featuring the team Wright managed, the Boston Red Caps of the National League, with every last hit, run, error and out notated in the penciled shorthand style still utilized to this day. Written in his Hall of Fame hand are the names of others that would join him in eternity at Cooperstown: John Ward, Charles Radbourne, Roger Connor, Tim Keefe. Most appealing about this historic bound volume, however, is the presence of Wright's autograph in the "Scorer" box on eighteen of the twenty-two games' pages. Thirteen are initialled "H.W.," while four are signed with the full "Harry Wright." The last is signed simply "H. Wright." Please do note, however, that even the unsigned score sheets are filled out entirely in Wright's hand. He notes on the cover, also in the standard NRMT pencil, that this book is "No. 4," and that it covers the games from "July 22 - Aug 25, 1881, Boston, Mass." Short of some wear at the spine, which does not affect a single letter of the writing within, the book remains in simply remarkable NRMT condition, as if even Father Time himself would not dare to harm a piece of such grand significance and appeal. Tremendous value here, both as a complete bound volume and as the sum of its parts. LOA from PSA/DNA.

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