Taft Wright

Taft Shedron "Taffy" Wright (August 10, 1911 – October 22, 1981) was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1938 to 1949, primarily in right field. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Wright began with the Washington Senators (1938–1939) before spending most of his career with the Chicago White Sox (1940–1942, 1946–1948) and finishing with the Philadelphia Athletics (1949). As a rookie in 1938 he batted .350, but with fewer than the required at-bats the batting title was awarded to Jimmie Foxx; the episode contributed to a later rule establishing a games-played minimum for batting-title eligibility. Over 1,029 games he compiled a .311 batting average with 1,115 hits, 38 home runs, and 553 runs batted in, topping .300 five times. On July 3, 1940 he hit the first pinch-hit grand slam in White Sox history. His career was interrupted by service in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945 in the Pacific Theater, where he reached the rank of sergeant and was named an Army Air Force All-Star in 1945. His playing career fell within baseball's pre-integration era.