Background
Adrian Constantine Anson was born on April 17, 1852 in Marshalltown, Iowa, United States; the son of Henry Anson and Jennette (Rice) Anson.
1907
Cap Anson
1888
Cap Anson baseball card (N162)
1908
On April 22, 1908, Cap Anson throws out the first pitch for the home opener for the Cubs at Chicago's West Side Park in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Cap Anson
Cap Anson in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
https://www.amazon.com/Ball-Players-Career-Adrian-Anson/dp/1981341749
2015
Adrian Constantine Anson was born on April 17, 1852 in Marshalltown, Iowa, United States; the son of Henry Anson and Jennette (Rice) Anson.
In 1866, Adrian spent two years at the high-school age boarding school of the University of Notre Dame. After being sent there by his father in hopes of curtailing his mischievousness. His time away did little to discipline him.
Soon, after Adrian returned home, his father sent him to the University of Iowa, in Iowa, United States, where his bad behavior resulted in the school asking him to leave after one semester.
Nicknamed “Cap” for being player-captain of the Chicago White Stockings, this baseball innovato. In 1939 Hall of Fame inductee was born to Henry and Jeanette (Rice) Anson of Marshalltown, Iowa. Henry Anson, Cap’s father, was the first to lay out the early settle nbcxment of Marshalltown in the 1850s. Landmarks such as Anson Elementary School bear his name.
Anson’s fame derives from baseball, a sport inextricably linked with him. The sport was in its infancy when it spread to the Midwest following the Civil War, but it flourished in the ensuing years. Anson learned the game playing on local teams with his father, Henry, and brother Sturgis, and perfected his skills attending boarding school at Notre Dame. In 1866, the same year he began attending Notre Dame, a baseball club was formed in Marshalltown. An exhibition game in 1870 against a team from Rockford, Illinois, changed his life.
Organized in 1865, the Forest Citys from Rockford had gained fame by defeating the Washington Nationals in a tournament held in Chicago in 1867, and by defeating the national champion Cincinnati Reds in 1870. In 1871 Rockford was one of nine teams in the first professional league, the National Association of Professional Baseball Players, or National Association. Recalling the team’s 1870 clash with Marshalltown, the Rockford club offered Anson a salary of $66.66 per month during the season. The 18-year-old Anson took it after securing permission from his father, who also was offered a chance to play but refused. Although Rockford was des- tined for the cellar and extinction that season, Anson’s career in baseball had begun. The following year he moved on to Philadelphia, where he stayed until 1876, and then to Chicago, the site of his greatest triumphs.
Anson spent 22 seasons with the Chicago White Stockings, the team now known as the Cubs. By the end of his career, Anson had set records that other stars aimed for in later years. The first player to amass 3,000 hits, he frequently hit better than 300 in his record 27 seasons as a major leaguer. A player and manager of the club, Anson not only led the team to five pennants but also won more games than any other manager in his era. Anson is said to have invented spring train- ing and a pitching rotation, among other innovations. Author David L. Fleitz put the matter succinctly: “Anson was baseball’s greatest player and its most successful manager, simultaneously.”
In myriad ways, Anson helped baseball become America’s national pastime while he became a celebrity in Chicago. But he helped exclude African Americans from organized baseball. A handful of infamous episodes in the 1880s made Anson the public face for segregation in baseball. His runins with and complaints about black players such as Moses Fleetwood Walker and George Stovey are legendary. Major league baseball had no black players after 1891 until Jackie Robinson reintegrated the sport in 1947. Anson was a strong influence, but his opinions also matched the mood of the country.
Anson explains none of this in his autobiography, A Ball Player’s Career. But the volume reeks with racist and stereotypical prose. In speaking at length about his relationship with the White Stockings team mascot, a young African American named Clarence Duval, Anson refers to him variously as a “little darkey,” a “little coon,” and a “no-account nigger.”
Forever linked with baseball, Anson hoped his epitaph would read: “Here lies a man who batted .300.” His plaque at Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, reads, in part: “The greatest hitter and greatest National League player-manager of the 19th century.”
Anson was regarded as one of the greatest players of his era and one of the first superstars of the game. He spent most of his career with the Chicago Cubs franchise, serving as the club's manager, first baseman and, later in his tenure, minority owner. He led the team to five National League pennants in the 1880s. Anson was one of baseball's first great hitters, and probably the first to tally over 3, 000 career hits.
In 1939 Anson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, one of the first 19th century players selected. Over 100 years after his retirement, he still holds several Cubs franchise records, including most career RBI, runs, hits, singles, and doubles while being the only Cub in the 3, 000 hit club.
Aggressive in disposition, "Adrian had a voice in his impassioned moments like a hundred Bulls of Bashan. " It was this fighting spirit which attracted and amused lovers of baseball, friends and foes alike.
Because of his genial character, his unexpected humor, and his remarkable generosity, Anson was greatly loved. He was the hero of numerous anecdotes.
Physical Characteristics: Adrian was a blond man standing well over six feet and weighing 195 pounds.
In 1872, the 20-year-old Anson met 13-year-old Virginia Fiegal, the daughter of a Philadelphia bar and restaurant owner, whom he married on November 21, 1876. The marriage lasted until her death in 1915.
The Ansons had seven children, three of whom died in infancy. Daughter Grace was born in October 1877, son Adrian Hulbert was born in 1882 and died four days later, daughter Adele was born in April 1884, son Adrian Constantine, Jr. was born in 1887 and died four months later, daughter Dorothy was born in 1889, son John Henry was born in 1892 and died four days later, and daughter Virginia Jeanette was born in 1899.
