Top 3 — Most Important

[oldjudge]

Originally Posted by Mark17

Agree. In no way am I minimizing racism, but actual violent criminal behavior is, to me, worse than the most vile words. My mom used to say, "Actions speak louder than words..." Beating up a woman is worse than calling her a racist name.

Mark, I think you are missing the point. Anson's racism cost hundreds of great ball players the chance to compete at the major league level. That affected them financially, physically and emotionally. No matter what Anson did with a bat it can't, at least in my mind, overcome the harm he caused to the game.

[benjulmag]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Mark, I think you are missing the point. Anson's racism cost hundreds of great ball players the chance to compete at the major league level. That affected them financially, physically and emotionally. No matter what Anson did with a bat it can't, at least in my mind, overcome the harm he caused to the game.

It is undisputed Anson was an avowed racist, and that is shameful. But I'm not sure I see the connection between that fact and the view that Anson's racism prevented ballplayers of color from competing at the major league level. The color barrier was formally adopted after the Civil War at the 1867 National Association Baseball Convention, long before Anson became a noted figure in baseball. And it continued long after he had left the game.

[oldjudge]

At least three African-American men played in the major leagues before Anson refused to let Chicago play a team with a black player: William Edward White, whose light skin color allowed him pass as white, played one game for the Providence Grays in 1879; Moses Fleetwood Walker, an openly Black man who played for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association between May 1 and September 4, 1884; and his brother, Weldy Walker, who played five games with the Toledo club between July 15 and August 6, 1884.

[cgjackson222]

"Regrettably, Anson used his stature to drive minority players from the game. An 1883 exhibition game in Toledo, Ohio, between the local team and the White Stockings nearly ended before it began when Anson angrily refused to take the field against Toledo’s African-American catcher, Moses Fleetwood Walker. Faced with the loss of gate receipts, Anson relented after a loud protest, but his bellicose attitude made Anson, wittingly or not, the acknowledged leader of the segregation forces already at work in the game. Other players and managers followed Anson’s lead, and similar incidents occurred with regularity for the rest of the decade. In 1887, Anson made headlines again when he refused to play an exhibition in Newark unless the local club removed its African-American battery, catcher Walker and pitcher George Stovey, from the field. Teams and leagues began to bar minorities from participation, and by the early 1890s, no black players remained in the professional ranks."
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/cap-anson/

[G1911]

Anson certainly played a role for refusing to play a game against a black player, but the some of the claims made in this thread (such as 3 and 49) are highly dubious. The 'gentleman's agreement' predated Anson with rare exception and continued without any exemptions for decades after he left baseball (and a quarter century after the man was dead). Even if one insists on treating the past as if it is the present and a vehicle in which to expect 2023 values and castigate those in whom we do not find them, Anson's responsibility for 80 years of baseball history seems to be overstated beyond what the ascertainable facts support.

I have a very hard time seeing an evidentiary based argument as to how he cracks the list for this.

[refz]

Here’s who I deem most important..obviously the “2” everyone already mentioned and…


Cy Young: 511 wins, 7,356 IP, 815 games started, 749 complete games, 25 1/3 hitless innings. Few of these records may never ever be broken. MLB has an award named after him for the top pitcher in both leagues. I feel a slot of importance should go to Young.


Babe Ruth
Jackie Robinson