Spalding, A G

Spalding, A(lbert) G(oodwill)

(born Sept. 2, 1850, Byron, Ill., U.S.—died Sept. 9, 1915, Point Loma, Calif.) U.S. baseball player, executive, and sporting-goods manufacturer. Spalding played with the Boston Red Stockings and later the Chicago White Stockings; he served as president for the latter team (1882–91). In 1876 he and his brother founded, in Chicopee, Mass., the firm that, as A.G. Spalding & Bros., would become one of the premier American sporting-goods companies. He also founded the annual Spalding's Official Baseball Guide and wrote the history America's National Game (1911). He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.