Editing Albert Spalding (section)

===Player===
Having played baseball throughout his youth, Spalding first played competitively with the [[Rockford, Illinois|Rockford]] Pioneers, a youth team, which he joined in 1865. After pitching his team to a 26–2 victory over a local men's amateur team (the Mercantiles), he was approached at the age of 15 by the [[Rockford Forest Citys]], for whom he played for five years. Following the formation of baseball's first professional organization, the [[National Association of Professional Base Ball Players]] (which became known as the National Association, the Association, or NA) in 1871, Spalding joined the [[History of the Boston Braves#Boston years|Boston Red Stockings]] (precursor club to the modern [[Atlanta Braves]]) and was highly successful; [[win (baseball)|winning]] 206 games (and losing only 53) as a pitcher and [[batting average (baseball)|batting]] .323 as a hitter.

[[William Hulbert]], principal owner of the [[Chicago White Stockings (1870–89)|Chicago White Stockings]], did not like the loose organization of the National Association and the gambling element that influenced it, so he decided to create a new organization, which he dubbed the [[National League (baseball)|National League]] of Baseball Clubs. To aid him in this venture, Hulbert enlisted the help of Spalding. Playing to the pitcher's desire to return to his Midwestern roots and challenging Spalding's integrity, Hulbert convinced Spalding to sign a contract to play for the White Stockings (now known as the [[Chicago Cubs]]) in 1876. Spalding then coaxed teammates [[Deacon White]], [[Ross Barnes]] and [[Cal McVey]], as well as [[Philadelphia Athletics (1860–1876)|Philadelphia Athletics]] players [[Cap Anson]] and [[Bob Addy]], to sign with Chicago. This was all done under complete secrecy during the playing season because players were all free agents in those days and they did not want their current club and especially the fans to know they were leaving to play elsewhere the next year. News of the signings by the Boston and Philadelphia players leaked to the press before the season ended and all of them faced verbal abuse and physical threats from the fans of those cities.

He was "the premier pitcher of the 1870s", leading the league in victories for each of his six full seasons as a professional.<ref name = "fame" /> During each of those years he was his team's only pitcher.<ref name="PBS">{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/spalding_hi.html|title=Albert G. Spalding|work=Who Made America?|publisher=PBS|access-date=19 November 2013}}</ref> In 1876, Spalding won 47 games as the prime pitcher for the White Stockings and led them to win the first-ever National League [[Pennant (sports)#Pennants as trophies|pennant]] by a wide margin.<ref name = "fame" />

In 1877, Spalding began to use a glove to protect his catching hand. People had used gloves previously, but they were not popular, and Spalding himself was skeptical of wearing one at first. However, once he began donning gloves, he influenced other players to do so.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YOcPDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA79|title=Old Time Baseball: America's Pastime in the Gilded Age|last=Frommer|first=Harvey|publisher=[[Rowman and Littlefield]]|year=2016|isbn=9781630760076|location=[[Guilford, Connecticut]]|pages=79–80}}</ref>

Spalding retired from playing baseball in 1878 at the age of 27, although he continued as president and part owner of the White Stockings and a major influence on the National League. Spalding's .796 career winning percentage (from an era when teams played about once or twice a week) is the highest ever by a baseball pitcher, .058 ahead of [[Negro league baseball|Negro league]] star [[Dave Brown (baseball)|Dave Brown]]'s .738.<ref>[https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/jaws_P.shtml Major league pitcher statistics at Baseball Reference]</ref> Spalding was the first pitcher to reach 200 wins.{{fact|date=November 2024}}