[more baseball history, if you aren't a sports fan you might want to skip this stop! But if you are hopefully a little league game is happening across the street]
From 1871 to 1875, Boston had a prominent baseball team called the Boston Red Stockings. This team pre-dated both the National and the American League; they were part of what was known as the American Association, the first professional baseball league in this country. Previously, there had only been under-the-table payments to team members. But in 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional team (who still keep their name as the Cincinnati Reds to this day). The Cincinnati Red Stockings were managed by a fellow named Harry Wright, and one of his prominent players was the shortstop George Wright. They won over a hundred consecutive games in the Association, until they finally lost to New York. The Cincinnati fans stopped going to their games after the team had its first loss.
Harry Wright left Cincinnati and came to Boston where he formed the Boston Red Stockings. They also brought in permanent players, including someone named Albert Goodwill Spalding from the Rockford, Illinois team. There were only eleven people on a team, one of which is the manager, so they only had ten players. They had one pitcher and he pitched every game. Albert Spalding was the pitcher for the Boston Red Stockings. They started to win a lot of games with their roster of players. Both because they offered good wages to get the best players and because Harry Wright was a very good manager. He made his team take baseball very seriously; he had spring training, he drilled them in the basics. The Wrights perfected the position of the shortstop. Before that, players would play at each base. Then the shortstop would be in front of second, just roaming around behind the pitcher, (that is why they were called the shortstop). Harry Wright said no, second baseman plays off second, between first and second, and the shortstop should play between second and third. He really started to invent modern baseball.
The team won most of the years between 1871 and 1875. They had the best record. In 1874, Spalding had 53 wins for the Boston Red Stockings because he pitched all the games. Then, three of the prominent players, including Albert Spalding, left Boston and went to Chicago. They got lured away to help form the Chicago White Stockings. The National League was formed about then in 1876 and Boston was one of the charter teams. They were called the Boston Braves (now the Atlanta Braves).
George Wright set up the very first 9 hole golf course in New England in 1890 in Franklin Park, at a time when golf was pretty much unknown to Americans. Now the 18 hole public golf course in Franklin Park is called the George Wright Golf Course. The Wrights lived in JP on Heath Street and then Harry Wright also lived on Pond Street for a little while. Both of them were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.