100 Years Ago 2 Weekends Ago: Cap Anson/Rube Foster

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Posted By: Howard W. Rosenberg

While the fall of 1908 is big for 100th anniversaries related to Merkle and the Cubs World Series title, a third purely having to do with Chicago baseball -- all the teams involved were Chicago ones -- took place earlier this month, and it arguably produced one of the ten most interesting box scores in baseball history -- Cap Anson on one Chicago semi-pro team and future Negro Leagues founder Rube Foster on the opposing one; see

http://blackathlete.net/artman2/publish/BASN_Focus_On_History_4/A_Significant_Anniversary.shtml

It's a link to something I've written, so I hope no one minds!

Howard

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Posted By: Matt Goebel

Is the box score available somewhere?

Matt

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Posted By: Howard W. Rosenberg

Hi Matt,

I can post the box score later today, most likely tonight!

Howard

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Posted By: Howard W. Rosenberg

Sorry for the delay. Guess everyone's in the mood to remember first basemen today anyway!

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Posted By: Misunderestimated

Two things jumped out at me: Anson (age 56!) played well and Foster, who was one of the great Pitchers, of the era didn't pitch he played 1st base. Does anyone recognize any of the other names on either team. Who did Anson get to play with him ? The Cubs and Sox were nearing the end of two epic pennant races that season.

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Posted By: Rhys

This article makes you wonder about the truthfulness of the story that Anson single handedly led to the color barrier in baseball because he was such a bigot that he refused to share the field with a black ballplayer. Seems like if someone was that hardened of a bigot, he wouldn't change the colors of his feathers 20 years later when, if anything, racism had gotten worse in America over that same time period. Just a couple of thoughts.

Rhys

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Posted By: Howard W. Rosenberg

The teams of Anson and Rube Foster were officially part of the top Chicago semi-pro league that year, and 1907 as well; and, I think both were in the league in 1909. Jimmy Ryan was on a different team in those seasons, and there was another former big leaguer or two in the league -- Jimmy "Nixey" Callahan was possibly the next-best known player in it.

In the sports world in general (and football in particular), the most notable player on Anson's team was Walter Eckersall; see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Eckersall

The blame-Anson-for-the-color-line argument is not based on any smoking gun, but rather conjecture. It's somewhat like folks going around saying Abner Doubleday invented baseball. Not sure, by the way, if the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in its exhibit about baseball's origins, bluntly states that Abner Doubleday and baseball have a mythical tie -- since that might be construed as upsetting the apple cart.