James ("Jimmy") Leon Wood (December 1, 1842 – November 30, 1927) was an American second baseman and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

in early professional

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

(MLB) who hailed from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He was the

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

for four teams in the early

National Association of Professional Base Ball Players The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), often known simply as the National Association (NA), was the first fully- professional sports league in baseball. The NA was founded in 1871 and continued through the 1875 se ...

(NAPBBP – 1871–1875 – later known simply as the National Association (NA) – the predecessor of the modern National League of Professional Baseball Clubs – later known simply as the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

(NL), ounded 1876of modern

(MLB), where he spent his entire base ball career in the 1860s into the 1870s. Wood's career in organized baseball began as early as 1860 when he began play for the

Eckford of Brooklyn Eckford of Brooklyn, or simply Eckford, was an American baseball club from 1855 to 1872. When the Union Grounds opened on May 15, 1862 for baseball in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, it became the first enclosed baseball grounds in America. Three clubs cal ...

(also known as the Brooklyn Eckfords), with whom he played for nine seasons (1860–1869) during the following decade. For the 1871 season, he took the position of player-manager for the Chicago White Stockings, for a salary of $2,000 per year. The White Stockings eventually were renamed the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

, so Wood is considered the first player signed by the Cubs, their first star, and their first manager. It was with the White Stockings that he is credited for inventing the program of

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives estab ...

when he moved his team down to

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

prior to the upcoming season to train in warmer weather. With Chicago having signed Wood, who had helped the Eckfords win two championships in 1862 and 1863, other star players followed, allowing Chicago to put a good team on the field in 1871.Jack Bales
''Before They Were the Cubs: The Early Years of Chicago’s First Professional Baseball Team''.
Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2019. For the 1871 season, the team became a charter member of the newly organized NAPBBP – the National Association. In late September, the Chicago team was tied with the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oakla ...

for first place, with games scheduled through late October, and Chicago fans were looking forward to their first pennant. However, the

Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 1 ...

burned down most of the city on Oct. 8 and 9. One of the buildings burned was the team’s ballpark. The team finished the season on the road, with mismatched uniforms as the team’s regular apparel also had been consumed by the fire. With their homes and possessions gone and having had few opportunities for practice, and despite Wood tallying a .378 batting average, the team finished in third place — but only two games behind the first-place A’s. With the White Stockings not taking the field in 1872, Wood moved on to manage two other short term ill-fated teams; the

Troy Haymakers The Troy Haymakers were an American professional baseball team. History Established in 1860 as the Union Base Ball Club Lansingburgh, located in neighboring Lansingburgh, New York, the Haymakers participated in the first professional pennant ra ...

and his old Eckford team. The next season, 1873, he managed the

Philadelphia White Stockings The Philadelphia White Stockings were an early professional baseball team. They were a member of the National Association from 1873 to 1875. Their home games were played at the Jefferson Street Grounds. They were managed by Fergy Malone, Jimm ...

for a year until he was able to reorganize a new Chicago team In 1874, he tried to

lance A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier (lancer). In ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thrusting, unlike s ...

an abscess on his left leg with a pocketknife. He accidentally dropped the blade on his right leg and cut it. This caused an infection which led to an eventual

amputation Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indi ...

of the right leg. This did not end his managerial career, though; he returned to the Chicago White Stockings, and managed them for two seasons before the National Association folded in 1875. In 1876, Wood became one of the new National League's first umpires. After retiring from professional baseball and moved to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

and began investing in

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. The genus ''Citrus'' is native to ...

interests. His daughter, Carrie, married

William Chase Temple William Chase Temple (December 28, 1862 – January 9, 1917) was a coal, citrus, and lumber baron during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was also a part owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from baseball's ...

, who was at one time, the owner of the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

. It was he who the

Temple Cup The Temple Cup was a cup awarded to the winner of an annual best-of-seven postseason championship series for American professional baseball from 1894 to 1897. Competing teams were exclusively from the National League, which had been founded in 1 ...

was named after. Wood's granddaughter, Dorothy Temple, married pitcher

Del Mason Adelbert William Mason (October 29, 1883 – December 31, 1962) was a Major League Baseball player for the Washington Senators and the Cincinnati Reds. Prior to his professional debut, Mason, a pitcher, played at the college level for Rollins C ...

. Wood's whereabouts had been debated for years until recently. In 1885, he operated a sporting goods store in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. He was traced all over the United States and Canada and eventually wound up in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, where he died and is interred at Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans.

References

External links

*Jack Bales
''Before They Were the Cubs: The Early Years of Chicago’s First Professional Baseball Team''.
Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2019. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Jimmy Brooklyn Eckfords (NABBP) players Chicago White Stockings (NABBP) players Chicago White Stockings (original) managers Chicago White Stockings players Troy Haymakers managers Troy Haymakers players Brooklyn Eckfords managers Brooklyn Eckfords players Philadelphia White Stockings managers Philadelphia White Stockings players Baseball player-managers Baseball players from New York (state) Sportspeople from Brooklyn 19th-century baseball players 1842 births 1927 deaths