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WRIGHT STUNS KINGS COUNTY & MOVES UPSTATE!
RECORD-SETTING PITCHER LEAVES TWO-TIME CUP WINNERS, JOINS NIAGARA CLUB

BROOKLYN & BUFFALO, N.Y. (Sep. 29, 1861) - BROOKLYN & BUFFALO, N.Y. (Sep. 29, 1861) – The base ball fans of New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area were left in shock on Sunday afternoon as Grover Wright, New York League Most Valuable Player and key member of cup champions Kings County B.B.C., announced that he was packing up his young family and moving upstate to Buffalo, where he would join Niagara B.B.C. starting next year.

Wright announced his move just a month after leading Kings County B.B.C. to their second consecutive Tucker-Wheaton Cup triumph. While pitching for Kings County in 1861, Wright set the N.Y.L. record for Wins (29-6) and set N.B.B.O. records for Innings Pitched (329.0), Complete Games (30), WHIP (1.12), and Pitching WAR (6.6). He started nearly twice as many games as any other K.C. pitcher and was considered the most important player in the star-studded Kings County roster by some measure.

Publicly, Wright stated that his move has come about thanks to a job offer to work in the lucrative Upstate New York shipping industry, in which Buffalo’s ports take part in nearly one quarter of all industrial freight traffic on Lake Erie. However, the private scuttlebutt is that while the job offer to Wright was indeed lucrative, it instead came via the promise of roughly a thousand dollars’ worth of under-the-table cash, in addition to the seasonal stipend, from Niagara G.M. Travis Schulz to play for the team for two seasons.

If the latter is indeed the case, it would not only be a significant breach of N.B.B.O. rules by the Niagara Club but it would also signal the beginning of the sport of baseball as a profession for its most talented practitioners, instead of merely a game & a hobby.

There is nothing to prevent players from changing clubs, so as of this dispatch no National Base Ball Organization executive has had anything to say about the sudden move of one of the young sport’s new stars. Under the surface, the lack of comment could also mean that the men in N.B.B.O. headquarters are looking into the “pay for play” rumors and discussing their possible avenues of response if indeed Wright is being given bags full of cash.

In any event, Wright’s move to Buffalo greatly upsets the balance of power in the New York League and especially in the Brooklyn Championship, which Kings County has won for each of the past four seasons. His decision has seemingly caught everybody outside of his own family & Niagara Club offices off-guard, and it is sure to make the 1862 season more interesting.