Cap Anson

Anson played on a number of competitive baseball clubs in his youth and began to play professionally in the National Association (NA) at the age of 19, primarily third base for the Rockford Forest Citys, one of the original teams of the Association.[3][10] He was a large and powerful man, standing 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) tall and weighing about 220 pounds (100 kg).[11]

After being traded to Philadelphia Athletics, in 1872 and 1873, Anson finished in the NA's top five in batting, on-base percentage (OBP), and on-base plus slugging (OPS). He led the NA in OBP in 1872. His numbers declined slightly in 1874 and 1875, but he was still good enough that Chicago White Stockings secretary-turned-president William Hulbert sought him to improve his club for the 1876 season. Hulbert broke league rules by negotiating with Anson and several other stars while the 1875 season was still in progress and ultimately founded the new National League to forestall any disciplinary action.[3][12]

Anson, who had become engaged to a Philadelphia native in the meantime,[13] had second thoughts about going west, but Hulbert held Anson to his contract and he eventually warmed to the Windy City.[14]

Cap Anson, Chicago

The White Stockings won the first league title, but fell off the pace the following two seasons. During this time, Anson was a solid hitter, but not quite a superstar. Both his fortunes and those of his team would change after Anson was named captain-manager of the club in 1879.

His new role led to the nickname "Cap",[3] though newspapers typically called him by the more formal "Captain Anson" or "Capt. Anson". With Anson pacing the way, the White Stockings won five pennants between 1880 and 1886. They were helped to the titles using new managerial tactics, including the use of a third-base coach, having one fielder back up another, signaling batters, and the rotation of two star pitchers.[3][15] In the first half of the 1880s, aided by speedy players like Mike Kelly, Anson had his players aggressively run the bases, forcing the opposition into making errors. After the expression first became popular in the 1890s, he retroactively claimed to use some of the first "hit and run" plays.

Anson shares credit as an innovator of modern spring training along with the president of the Chicago club, Albert Spalding. They were among the first to send their clubs to warmer climates in the South to prepare for the season, beginning in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1886.[15] On the field, Anson was the team's best hitter and run producer. In the 1880s, he won two batting titles (1881, 1888) and finished second four times (1880, 1882, 1886–1887). During the same period, he led the league in runs batted in (RBIs) seven times (1880–82, 1884–86, 1888). His best season was in 1881, when he led the league in batting (.399), OBP (.442), OPS (.952), hits (137), total bases (175), and RBIs (82). He also became the first player to hit three consecutive home runs, five homers in two games, and four doubles in a game, as well as being the first to perform two unassisted double plays in a game. He is one of only a few players to score six runs in a game, a feat he accomplished on August 24, 1886.

Anson signed a ten-year contract in 1888 to manage the White Stockings (which, because of a typographical error he failed to spot, ended after the 1897 season instead of 1898),[2][15] but his best years were behind him. He led the league in walks in 1890 and garnered his eighth and final RBI crown in 1891. On the managerial front, he failed to win another pennant.

As the end of the 1880s approached, the club had begun trading away its stars in favor of young players, with the exception of the veteran Anson. Local newspapers had started to call the team "Anson's Colts", or just "Colts", before the decade was out. With the advent of the Players' League in 1890, what little talent the club still had was drained away, and the team nickname "Colts", though never official, became standard usage in the local media[2][16][17] along with variants such as (Anson's) White Colts and (Anson's) Broncos.[15]

He also mellowed enough that he became a fatherly figure and was often called "Pop".[3] When he was fired as manager after the 1897 season, it also marked the end of his 27-year playing career. The following season, newspapers dubbed the Colts the "Orphans", as they had lost their "Pop".[3][15]

Cap Anson baseball card (N162), 1888

Although the decision to ban black players from the National League and (minor) International League was made behind the scenes by team owners, Anson was the most outspoken player and vociferously insisted on segregation even before the ban was official. As a star player and team manager, his influence was substantial. Baseball historian Kevin Blackstone opined that "I don’t think anyone has had a greater impact on baseball than Anson" for his role in baseball's racist discrimination.[4] However, baseball historian Bill James denied that any individual player was the prime mover, “It is enormously likely that Jim Crow would have come to baseball even had Cap Anson never been born."[3]

On August 10, 1883, Anson refused to play an exhibition game against the Toledo Blue Stockings because their catcher, Moses Fleetwood Walker, was black.[15] When Blue Stockings Manager Charlie Morton told Anson the White Stockings would forfeit the gate receipts if they refused to play, Anson backed down,[3][18] but not before uttering the word nigger on the field and vowing that his team would not play in such a game again.[19]

In 1884, Chicago again played an exhibition game at Toledo, which was now in the American Association, a major league. Walker sat it out, however, it is uncertain whether he did so to placate Chicago or due to injury; Jimmy McGuire instead did the catching. Both had sore hands, the Toledo Blade had said a few days earlier. Of the two catchers, Walker was seemingly the more injured, as he did not play in Toledo's second-most recent game.[20] Among Anson's incidents, this one is unique in that private correspondence provides insight. Three months before the game, Chicago Treasurer-Secretary John A. Brown wrote Toledo manager Charlie Morton that "the management of the Chicago Ball Club have no personal feeling about the matter," while "the players do most decisively object and to preserve harmony in the club it is necessary that I have your assurance in writing that [Walker] will not play any position in your nine July 25. I have no doubt such is your meaning[;] only your letter does not express in full [sic]. I have no desire to replay the occurrence of last season and must have your guarantee to that effort."[21]

Walker and his brother Welday were released from their team later that year, Welday last playing on August 6 and Fleet on September 4. On July 14, 1887 the Chicago White Stockings played an exhibition game against the Newark Little Giants. African American George Stovey was listed in the Newark News as the scheduled Newark starting pitcher. Anson objected, and Stovey did not pitch. Moreover, International League owners had voted 6-to-4 at a 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. meeting in Buffalo on the morning of the game to exclude African-American players from future contracts.[22]

Anson was authoritarian as a manager, marching his players onto the field in military formation and banning alcohol consumption during the playing season.[3] Starting in the latter 1880s, he often bet on baseball, mainly on his team's chances to win the pennant. Today that would be considered incongruous with a moral character. However, in that era, the main concern was players taking bribes to purposely lose games. Betting by players, managers, and owners was regarded as acceptable so long as they did not bet against their team doing well or associate with gamblers.[23]

On corruption in sports, he said the following in 1891: "The time may have been, and probably was, when base-ball was as rotten as horse racing, but that time has gone by. The men in control of base-ball matters are of the highest personal character, and no one will say anything against them. As to the charges against any individual player, I will believe them when they have been proved. Every thing [sic] possible has been done to protect the patrons of the National game, and efforts in that direction will never be abated. I don’t know of any crookedness in the ball field. If I did I’d undoubtedly say something about it."[24]

A chronological review of 162 reports of bets on regular season baseball by players, managers or club officials, from 1876 to 1900, tallied the sport's top bettors in that era as follows:

• 1. Anson (57), Chicago's captain-manager; Hall of Famer
• 2. (tie) Jim Mutrie (9), mainly as manager of the New York Giants, and his bets were mostly with Anson
• 2. Edward Talcott (9), millionaire stockbroker as treasurer of the New York Giants
• 4. (tie) King Kelly (7), mainly as Boston's captain; Hall of Famer
• 4. Frank Robison (7), Cleveland Spiders owner[25]

Anson first met Albert Spalding while both were players; Spalding was a pitcher for the Rockford Forest Citys, Anson played for the Marshalltown, Iowa, team.[15] Spalding convinced the 18-year-old Anson to come play for the Forest Citys at a salary of $65 per month. In 1876, when Anson was playing for Philadelphia, Spalding and William Hulbert lured Anson to the Chicago team, which Spalding now managed.[15] After signing the contract, Anson had second thoughts (his future wife did not want to leave her family in Philadelphia), and offered Spalding $1,000 to void the contract. Spalding held Anson to the contract, and Anson came to Chicago in March 1876.[15]

Spalding retired as a player and manager after the 1877 season, but continued as secretary, and later president, of the White Stockings.[15] Anson became a player/manager of the team in 1879, and by 1889 had a 13% ownership.[13][15] In 1888 Spalding announced that the White Stockings, including Anson, and a "picked nine"[13] from the rest of the National League would begin a World Tour after the end of the season. Spalding put up most of the money, but Anson invested $3,750 of his own.[13] James Hart was hired as business manager and Anson developed an intense dislike for him.[13]

After Spalding stepped down as president of the Chicago club in 1891, he appointed James Hart to the position,[15] which Anson felt should have been his despite his dismal business record.[13] Spalding, however, continued to run the club behind the scenes.[15] In December 1892, Hart, with Spalding's blessing, reorganized the White Stockings into a stock company.[13] Anson was required to sign a new contract, which ended in 1898 instead of 1899 as the previous one had.[13] Anson spotted the error later but said nothing, trusting that Spalding would honor the previous terms.[13]

Hart began to undermine Anson's managerial decisions by reversing fines and suspensions imposed by Anson.[13] By 1897 Anson had little control over his players; after Anson demanded a sportswriter print that Anson thought "the Chicago ball club is composed of drunkards and loafers who are throwing him down",[13] his days as manager were numbered. Spalding invited Anson and his wife on a four-week journey to England in late November 1897. Spalding dropped many hints on the voyage, encouraging Anson to voluntarily retire, but Anson had no intention of doing so.[13] Things remained in limbo until January 29, 1898 when the Associated Press printed a statement by Spalding: "I have taken pains as a mediator to find out from Chicagoans how they feel about a change of management. There has been a decided undercurrent in favor... Lovers of baseball think that Anson has been in power too long."[13]

Cap Anson throws out the first pitch for the home opener for the Cubs on April 22, 1908, at Chicago's West Side Park.

There has been some controversy as to whether Anson should be considered the first player ever to reach the 3,000 hit milestone. For many years, official statistics credited him with achieving that goal. When the first edition of Macmillan's Baseball Encyclopedia was published in 1969, it disregarded a rule in place only for the 1887 season which counted base-on-balls (walks) as hits and times-at-bat instead of zeroes in both categories as they were before and have been since. Anson's 60 walks were removed from his 1887 hit total, resulting in a career mark of 2,995, though later editions of the encyclopedia still added five more hits to exactly 3,000.[13]

The other controversy over Anson's total hits had to do with his five years in the National Association.[26] Neither the Macmillan Encyclopedia editions nor MLB itself at that time recognized the National Association as being a true major league.[13] MLB.com does not count Anson's time in the NA in his statistics, but tallies his NL total as 3,011 hits.[27] This places Anson 25th on the all-time list.[28]

Other sources credit Anson with a different number of hits, largely because scoring and record keeping was haphazard in baseball until well into the 20th century.[29]

Beginning with the publication of the Baseball Encyclopedia, statisticians have continually found errors and have adjusted career totals accordingly. According to the Sporting News baseball record book, which does not take NA statistics into account, Anson had 3,012 hits over his career.[30] Baseball Reference also credits Anson with 3,012 hits during his NL career; including his time in the NA, Anson is credited with 3,435 hits.[10] The National Baseball Hall of Fame, which uses statistics verified by the Elias Sports Bureau, credits Anson with 3,081 hits.[31] This figure disregards games played in the NA, but includes the walks earned during 1887 as hits.