George Wright signature in Seymour Church book
 

I have a copy of Seymour Church's book Base Ball, published in 1902. It is signed by George Wright (1842-1937). Given Wright's career, I'm not sure why he would have signed with the inscription "1867-1918" (1918 I'm assuming is the year he would have inscribed the book)

Any thoughts as to why 1867? I have no expertise on early Reds, but he is not shown on the 1867 team http://www.19cbaseball.com/tours-186...ings-tour.html

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/21/917...d534d68e_o.jpg

JimStinson
 

This should answer the riddle
On April 22, 1876, he became the first batter in National League history
The last year is probably when the item was signed as I've seen him do that before , Nice item !

JimStinson
 

My guess is he transcribed the numbers wrong,

JimStinson
 

Or is referring to this

In 1867, he joined the Nationals of Washington, DC, eldest club in that city, whose approach to professionalism was arranging government jobs, mainly with the Treasury. He played second base, shortstop, and pitcher in 29 of the 30 matches fully on record and in those matches led the team both in scoring and hands lost. Next year he returned to the Unions for the association's last officially all-amateur season and moved permanently to the shortstop position

Damn, you have so much great stuff Max. That is a beautiful sig, and in a book no less!