Adrian Constantine Anson (April 17, 1852 – April 14, 1922), known by the nicknames "Cap" (for "Captain") and "Pop", was a professional baseball player in the National Association and Major League Baseball. He played in a record twenty-seven consecutive seasons, and was regarded as one of the greatest players of his era and one of the first superstars of the game.
Anson spent most of his career with the Chicago Cubs franchise (then known as the "White Stockings" and later the "Colts"), 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 was the first to tally over 3,000 career hits.
Anson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.
Anson was born in Marshalltown, Iowa. Beginning in 1866, he 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, and soon after he returned home his father sent him to the University of Iowa, where his bad behavior resulted in the school asking him to leave after one semester.
young 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. He met Albert Spalding while both were players - Spalding was a pitcher for the Rockford Forest Citys, Anson played for the Marshalltown, Iowa team. Spalding convinced the 18-year-old Anson to come play for the Forest Citys at a salary of $65 per month.
Albert Spalding
His best years in the NA were 1872 and 1873, when he finished in the top five in batting, OBP (leading the league in 1872), and OPS. In 1876, when Anson was playing for Philadelphia, Spalding and William Hulbert lured Anson to the Chicago team, which Spalding now managed. 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. Anson, who had become engaged to a Philadelphia native in the meantime, had second thoughts about going west, but Hulbert held Anson to his contract and he eventually warmed to the Windy City.
1876 Champion White Stockings
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. Spalding retired as a player and manager after the 1877 season, but continued as secretary, and later president, of the White Stockings, and the fortunes of Anson and of his team soon changed. Anson was named captain-manager of the club in 1879, hence the nickname "Cap", although the newspapers typically called him by the more formal "Captain Anson" or "Capt. Anson". By 1889, Anson had acquired a 13% ownership in the club.
Micheal "King" Kelly
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 using a third-base coach, having one fielder back up another, signaling batters, and the rotation of two star pitchers. 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 used some of the first "hit and run" plays.
White Stockings President Albert Spalding
Anson shares credit as an innovator of modern spring training along with then-Chicago President Albert Spalding, as they were among the first to send their clubs to warmer climes in the South to prepare for the season. 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, 1886-87). During the same period, he led the league 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 accomplished on August 24, 1886.
Cap
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), 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, but declined precipitously thereafter. 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 along with variants such as (Anson's) White Colts and (Anson's) Broncos.
He also mellowed enough that he became a fatherly figure and was often called "Pop". 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".
Anson briefly made a return to baseball managing the New York Giants in June and July of 1898. He then attempted to buy a Chicago team in the Western League, but failed after being opposed by Spalding. In 1900, he helped to organize a new version of the defunct American Association, called the New American Base Ball Association, and was named its president. However, at the first sign of trouble he dissolved the league before a single game was played, drawing heated criticism from other backers.
After a number of failed business attempts, including a handball arena and bottled ginger beer that exploded on store shelves, he was later elected city clerk of Chicago in 1905 and then, after serving one term, failed in the Democratic primary to become sheriff in 1907.
In 1907, Anson made another attempt to come back to baseball, acquiring a semi-pro team in the Chicago City League, which he would call "Anson's Colts". Anson initially had no intention of playing for the team, but in June 1907, at the age of 55, Anson started playing some games at first base in an attempt to boost poor attendance. Despite the draw of seeing Anson play, the team did not attract much attendance, and lost money for Anson.
Some of Anson's few successful ventures were a combination billiards hall and a bowling alley he opened in downtown Chicago in 1899. Anson was named vice-president of the American Bowling Congress in 1903, and led a team to the five-man national championship in 1904. Anson was forced to sell the billiards hall in 1909 when faced with mounting financial problems that led to his bankruptcy. Anson was also an avid golfer.
With the aid of ghostwriter Richard Cary Jr., Anson's memoirs, titled A Ball Player's Career: Being the Personal Reminiscences of Adrian C. Anson, were published in 1900. This book is considered the first baseball autobiography. Anson began acting during his baseball career. In 1888, he made his stage debut with a single appearance in Hoyt's play A Parlor Match at the Theatre Comique in Harlem. He also played himself in an 1895 Broadway play called The Runaway Colt, written to take advantage of his fame. Later, Anson began touring on the vaudeville circuit, a common practice for athletes of the time, which lasted up until about a year before his death. He first appeared in vaudeville in 1913 doing a monologue and a short dance. In 1914, George M. Cohan wrote a monologue for him, and in 1917, Cohan, with Chicago Tribune sportswriter Ring Lardner wrote another piece for him, titled First Aid for Father. Anson appeared with two of his grown daughters, Adele and Dorothy, and would bat papier mâché baseballs made by Albert Spalding into the audience.
Anson retired from vaudeville in 1921, and continued to refuse a pension from Major League Baseball, despite having no other income. In April 1922, he became the general manager of a new golf club in the South Side of Chicago. Following a glandular ailment, Anson died on April 14 at the age of 69 in Chicago, Illinois and was interred at the Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago.
Anson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939, 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. Defensively, he also holds the franchise record for putouts, but also is second in franchise history for errors.

Career hits total

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 0's 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.
The other controversy over Anson's total hits had to do with his five years in the National Association. Neither the Macmillan Encyclopedia editions nor Major League Baseball itself at that time recognized the NA as being a true major league. Only recently has Major League Baseball accepted the NA as a de facto major league; the MLB.com website now includes the NA years in Anson's record, placing major league hits total as 3,418. Anson is officially placed at seventh in the all-time leaders in hits.
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. 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. The National Baseball Hall of Fame (which uses statistics verified by the Elias Sports Bureau) credits Anson with 3,081 hits. This figure disregards games played in the NA, but includes the 1887 walks as hits.

Racial intolerance

Anson's contemporary influence and prestige are regarded by historians as playing a major role in establishing the racial segregation in professional baseball that persisted until the late 1940s. He was well known to be a racist and refused to play in exhibition games versus dark-skinned players. On several occasions, Anson refused to take the field when the opposing roster included black players.
Moses Fleetwood Walker
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.
This racism and its impact on the game of baseball remains a dark stain on Anson’s otherwise stellar career.
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