William Henry "Harry" Wright (January 10, 1835 – October 3, 1895) was an American professional baseball player, manager, and developer.

He assembled, managed, and played center field for baseball's first fully professional team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings.

He is credited with introducing innovations such as backing up infield plays from the outfield and shifting defensive alignments based on hitters' tendencies.

[1] His family emigrated to the U.S. when he was nearly three years old, and his father found work as a bowler, coach, and groundskeeper at the St George's Cricket Club in New York.

[2] Both Harry and George, 12 years younger, assisted their father, effectively apprenticing as cricket "club pros".

[3] Both brothers played baseball for some of the leading clubs during the amateur era of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP).

[4] In 1863, the Knickerbocker club all but withdrew from official competition, and Wright joined Gotham of New York, primarily playing shortstop.

With Wright working as the regular pitcher, and still a superior player at that level, the team won 16 matches and lost only to the Nationals of Washington, D.C., on their historic tour.

The most important of the new men was brother George, probably the best player in the game for a few years, the highest paid man in Cincinnati at $1400 for nine months.

The Red Stockings toured the continent undefeated in 1869 and may have been the strongest team in 1870, but the club dropped professional base ball after the second season, its fourth in the game.

After leaving the Red Caps, Wright quickly picked up with the Providence Grays, one of the stronger NL teams of the era.

In 1882, his first season as Grays manager, the team finished in second place, just three games behind the powerful Chicago White Stockings led by Cap Anson.

Wright assembled a team of amateurs, which would play at Messer Street Grounds while the Grays were on the road, with the intention that if one of the senior members was injured, he could be easily replaced from among these players.

Unfortunately, that was to be the high-water mark of Wright's tenure in Philadelphia, as the team hovered in the middle of the pack, finishing between third and fifth every year from 1888 until 1893 (although he missed a large portion of the 1890 season due to problems with his eyesight[10]).

During Wright's tenure in Philadelphia, he often clashed with team owners Al Reach and Colonel John I. Rogers.

During his career, Wright had often served as umpire, even for games involving rival teams, due to his high ethical standards.

Here it was that he had his little home stake, and here in the impressive silence of beautiful West Laurel Hill his mortal remains lie buried.