Harry Wright Scorebook
 

WTB or any information pertaining to: Harry Wright Scorebook No. 2 1890

Was that 1890 full year scorebook pulled apart and sold in sections like most of the others? I’ve got one of the 1883 sections. I wondered if any of the full year scorebooks that Wright had bound together even remain intact.

Rob M

Ugh

Harry Wright Scorebooks 1889-1890
 

I own the complete Harry Wright 1889 scorebook which covers spring training through post season exhibition games.
At one time the 1889 season was bound together with three "booklets" of the 1890 season. Written in Harry's hand at top are

No. 1 - 1890 / Feb 20th to March 26th 1890
No. 2 - 1890 / March 27th to April 28th 1890
No. 3 - 1890 / April 29th to May 21st 1890

I bought No. 1 at Lelands in 1991
I bought No. 3 at Sloates in 1998

Somewhere out there is No. 2. I believe it was sold as Lot 431 of the Mastro July 16,17 1998 auction, but under a careless and incorrect description, for the accompanying picture is of No. 1. Assuming Mastros did have one of the pamphlets for sale, it could not have been either No. 1 or No. 3, for both were on my library shelf at the time.

Harry Wright Scorebooks
 

"ugh" was not the answer I was hoping for, but probably reflects Doug (never met a scorecard he didn't like) Goodman's realistic assessment of finding No. 2.

Doug needs to move his collection deep into the caverns of an underground mine for safekeeping.

I, like many others, was very disappointed when those books were torn apart in order to sell the individual booklets but I guess I became an accomplice when I purchased mine. I felt the damage was already done and it was a nice addition to my scorebook collection. Oh well.

Keith - I always wondered if any of those 1889 exhibition games included Kansas City as an opponent (I’m a KC guy)?

Rob M

Keith - I'm very happy to hear that you have 1889 and the two parts of 1890.

My "ugh" was because I thought they had all been separated, glad that you "saved" them.

Doug "is there a scorecard not worth liking?" Goodman

As to the collector sensitive issue of breaking up books into their individual parts, the Harry Wright Scorebooks have been particularly vulnerable because of the perceived value of his "autograph." In the earlier books he might sign the "Scorer's Box" with his full name but usually with his initials or occasionally left blank.
The current catalogue of the Albert G. Spalding Collection at the NYPL, Container List IV, C. is titled - "Harry Wright Score Books / 1883-1892 ten books bound together in one volume" I don't believe anyone alive today knows exactly what that might have been, but in 1928 the "books" turn up in the collection of Bruce Foster who frequented spring training games and was fond of showing off pieces from his collection to players and reporters. Foster died in 1989, and Mark Rucker and Barry Sloate purchased and divided the "mammoth" collection. Barry specifically remembers ten scorebooks:

Boston 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881
Providence 1883
Philadelphia 1884, 1885, 1886, 1888, 1889-90

In the various descriptions of these books, before and since, "ten" is the common denominator although the dates vary from source to source. Barry's is almost certainly the best and conforms to what is known today.
There are auction records for several of the books, or parts thereof, but presumably they were sold privately and also at conventions and shows. Terry Knouse always had a page or two at his booth at the Shriner's Show in Wilmington.
My mission is to reunite No. 2 1890 with No. 1 and No. 3.