005_Rock_bottom_didnt_last_In_1884_Reach_made_the_single_smartes

In 1884, Reach hired Harry Wright, a successful manager with a history of leading professional baseball teams to championships. Wright transformed the Phillies, leading them to consistent success from 1885 to 1895. Reach also built a new stadium, called Philadelphia Baseball Park, later known as Huntington Street Grounds, considered the best ballpark in the country at the time, accommodating up to 19,000 fans. Rock Bottom didn't last. In 1884, Reach made the single smartest hire in early franchise history, Harry Wright. Rabas wasn't just any manager. Back in 1869, he'd run the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly all-professional team in the sport's history, and later won championships with Boston. He's remembered on his own tombstone as the father of professional baseball. Under Wright, the Phillies turned it around almost immediately, finishing in the upper half of the league every single season from 1885 through 1895. They also outgrew Recreation Park fast. Reach built a new stadium, Philadelphia Baseball Park, though everyone eventually called it Huntington Street Grounds, on the site of an old dump with a creek running underneath it. When it opened in 1887, it held 12,500 fans, expandable to nearly 19,000, and it was considered, at the time, the finest ballpark in the country.