Taffy Wright

Taft Shedron Wright

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 180 lb.

• Debut April 18, 1938
• Final Game September 16, 1949
• Born August 10, 1911 in Tabor City, NC USA
• Died October 22, 1981 in Orlando, FL USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Taffy Wright hit .311 during a nine-year major league career. His career would have been longer but he made his debut at age 26 and he missed 1943-45 to the war.

Wright was in the minors through age 25. In 1936-37 he was with Chattanooga, hitting around .320 each time.

Coming up for 281 at-bats with the 1938 Senators, he hit .350, a mark he would not again equal although he would subsequently finish in the top ten in batting in 1940, 1941 and 1947. In 1942 he hit .333, which would have been second in the league but he had only 353 at-bats.

In 1938 the Senators used Wright as a pinch-hitter quite a bit, getting him up to 100 games, but the league decided that Jimmie Foxx would instead be recognized as the league batting leader. Source: The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, referring to "100 games = 100 games in the field" as the "Taffy Wright rule".

Wright grounded into the final out of Bob Feller's no hitter on Opening Day, April 16, 1940. He entered the Army in September 1942 and was discharged in November 1945. He played service ball while at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, in Hawaii and in the Marianas.

After his major league days he played in the minors for seven more years, mostly hitting well over .300.

He managed in the minors in 1954-56.

Year-by-Year Managerial Record

Year	Team	League	Record	Finish	Organization	Playoffs
1954	Ottawa A's	International League	32-51	8th	Philadelphia A's		replaced Les Bell (26-45) on June 29
1955	Amarillo Gold Sox	West Texas-New Mexico League	36-21	1st	none	Lost League Finals	replaced Buck Fausett (37-26) on July 15
1956	Orlando Seratomas	Florida State League	46-46	--	Diablos Rojos del Mexico	--	replaced by Gee Walker (9-37) on July 16

Related Sites

• Taft Wright at the SABR Bio Project