On my tear-off White Sox calendar today was the question, "Whose Hall of Fame plaque begins with the words: GREATEST HITTER AND GREATEST NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYER-MANAGER OF THE 19TH CENTURY"? Answer: Cap Anson
Here’s more on Anson from wikipedia…
Anson was well known to be racist and refused to play in exhibition games versus dark-skinned players. This attitude was not considered unusual in his day, and Anson remained very popular in Chicago while playing for the White Stockings. On August 10, 1883 Anson refused to play an exhibition game against the Toledo Blue Stockings because their catcher, Moses Fleetwood Walker, was African American When Blue Stockings Manager Charlie Morton told Anson the White Stockings would forfeit the gate receipts if they refused to play, Anson backed down. 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 Little Giants’ scheduled starting pitcher. Anson objected, and Stovey did not pitch. Moreover, International League owners had voted 6-to-4 to exclude African-American players from future contracts. In September 1888 Chicago was at Syracuse for an exhibition game. Anson refused to start the game when he saw Walker’s name on the scorecard as catcher. Again, Anson pressured his opponents to find a Caucasian replacement.
My thoughts on the above post:
1. The cynic in me can’t resolve using the term “African-American” when referring to black people in the 19th century.
2. Cap Anson was certainly a racist. No doubt about it. On the whole, his role in keeping blacks out of baseball was probably over-stated though.
3. As racist as he was, Anson did much to popularize the game of baseball during the 1880s in the Chicago area (at least among whites).
not trying to excuse the racism because I’ve already read how blatantly racist Anson was. Just providing a different perspective.
he was a racist piece of dog shit!