Mel Wright

Who was Mel Wright?

Melvin James Wright, Jr. was an American Major League Baseball pitcher, pitching coach and scout. A native of Manila, Arkansas, who attended Ouachita Baptist University, Wright threw and batted right-handed and was measured during his playing days at 6 ft 3 in tall and 210 pounds.

Wright was a longtime associate of former MLB center fielder and manager Bill Virdon. Originally signed by the New York Yankees in 1950, Wright was traded with Virdon to the St. Louis Cardinals on April 11, 1954, in a multiplayer transaction that sent eventual Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Enos Slaughter to the Yanks. But while Virdon enjoyed a decade-plus-long Major League playing tenure, Wright spent most of his pitching career at the Triple-A minor league level. In 543 minor league games, he won 85 games, losing 61 with an earned run average of 3.01.

He did appear in 58 games with the Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, winning two of six decisions, surrendering 119 hits in 84 innings pitched, and compiling a poor earned run average of 7.61.

He began his coaching career in 1962 with the Salt Lake City Bees of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, then was a member of the Cubs' experimental College of Coaches in 1963–1964 before becoming a Chicago scout, minor league pitching instructor, then Major League pitching coach for one season on the staff of Leo Durocher. In 1973, Virdon, then in his second and final season as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, named Wright as his Major League pitching coach. Virdon then appointed Wright to posts with the Yankees, Houston Astros and Montreal Expos.