Adrian Anson was the Iowa-born “King of Swing” in early professional baseball. His records were not exceeded until the likes of Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth.
As Iowa prepares for the Field of Dreams classic at Dyersville between the White Sox and Yankees on Aug. 12, baseball history is being made with the first regular season Major League Baseball game in the state. That does not mean, however, that the Hawkeye State has a zero batting average in the country’s national pastime. In fact, it was an Iowan who helped gain baseball the critical acclaim it needed in its infancy to become the professional sport it is today.
Adrian Anson, otherwise known as “Cap,” capped a 30-year career in baseball by achieving, in his early years, a .400 batting average and smacking more than 2,000 RBIs throughout his lifetime on the diamond. He set the standards and the record for baseball, which was not exceeded until the likes of Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth.
Anson was born the son of one of the pioneer settlers of Marshalltown in 1852. As a child, he honed his hitting skills in informal back lot matchups within the fledgling community and brought his talent to the University of Iowa. He found baseball, not academics, to be his calling and in 1870 was discovered by an agent of Al Spalding, later co-founder of the National League.
Anson, at age 19, was recruited by Spalding to play for the Rockford Foresters of what was then known as baseball’s National Association. He was an instant hit, accruing a .325 batting average while holding the position of first baseman for the team.
In 1876 William Hulbert and Spalding chartered a new division in professional baseball called the National League. Its flagship team, which at the time wore all dark blue uniforms and caps, donned long ivory colored socks that stretched from their foot to their knee and became dubbed “The White Stockings.”
Anson was the team’s powerhouse hitter and led the club to capture its first pennant that year. Two years later, following on that success, he was struck out only once in the entire season, and the next year was named manager of the team.
He continued to play on the field in that role with the White Stockings building up an unprecedented .798 winning percentage. Anson himself captained the team to three more pennants and maintained a .400 batting average. He became known as “The King of Swing” and was noted as one of the most recognized names in sports around the world.
A dark chapter in this stellar career came in 1883 when he objected to playing against the Toledo, Ohio team that included an African American catcher (Anson, in later years, embraced Black athletes and enthusiastically played on the field with members of what would become the Negro League). His star continued to shine through the late 1880s, including two more pennants and a World Series.
A shadow, however, would be cast over him and all of baseball at the beginning of the ensuing decade when, in a dispute over pay and other issues, ballplayers walked out on their teams and Anson formed his own branch, which he called the Players League, captaining its flagship club, the Chicago Colts. The rift between athletes and management was ultimately resolved and the National League restored to prominence, but resentment by many players reduced Anson’s standing in the sport.
By that time in his 40s, his performance on the diamond began to wane, hitting less than a hundred runs by the end of the 1892 season. He remained in the line up until 1897, completing his Chicago career with a batting average of .285 that year. Anson retired in the fall at age 45, the oldest player to that time in the history of the league. Raised on small-town pioneer values, he turned down a $50,000 pension, terming it “charity.”
Anson never lost the itch to play, though, and went on to serve a year as manager of the New York Giants and then returned to the Windy City where he organized a minor league team, reviving the name of the Colts, and built a baseball stadium in which they could play, on the city’s south side (not to be confused with Comiskey Park, which was later erected on 35th Street as home to the American League’s White Sox franchise). At 55, he chose himself to play first base but despite his fame was unable to finance and attract top athletes. The business folded in 1910.
Anson soon lost the club, the stadium and his home in bankruptcy and moved quietly to reside with his in-laws. There, he lived off scant residuals he made from sales of a biography he wrote and occasional speaking engagements on the Vaudeville circuit as a former celebrity.
Anson died in 1922, penniless. The National League took up a collection and paid for his burial at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago. His grave is marked by a granite marker bearing two baseball bats crossed at the center.
Now, as we think of Kevin Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella, sacrificing nearly everything to fulfill his dream of baseball, let us not forget another Iowa legend who lost it all in pursuing his passion of America’s pastime.
A monument has been put up in downtown Marshalltown honoring the Anson family legacy. Although it has received little attention and only an occasional few visitors, perhaps the aura of the Major League contest in Dyersville will prove the mantra true once again: “if you build it, they will come.”
www.thegazette.com
As Iowa prepares for the Field of Dreams classic at Dyersville between the White Sox and Yankees on Aug. 12, baseball history is being made with the first regular season Major League Baseball game in the state. That does not mean, however, that the Hawkeye State has a zero batting average in the country’s national pastime. In fact, it was an Iowan who helped gain baseball the critical acclaim it needed in its infancy to become the professional sport it is today.
Adrian Anson, otherwise known as “Cap,” capped a 30-year career in baseball by achieving, in his early years, a .400 batting average and smacking more than 2,000 RBIs throughout his lifetime on the diamond. He set the standards and the record for baseball, which was not exceeded until the likes of Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth.
Anson was born the son of one of the pioneer settlers of Marshalltown in 1852. As a child, he honed his hitting skills in informal back lot matchups within the fledgling community and brought his talent to the University of Iowa. He found baseball, not academics, to be his calling and in 1870 was discovered by an agent of Al Spalding, later co-founder of the National League.
Anson, at age 19, was recruited by Spalding to play for the Rockford Foresters of what was then known as baseball’s National Association. He was an instant hit, accruing a .325 batting average while holding the position of first baseman for the team.
In 1876 William Hulbert and Spalding chartered a new division in professional baseball called the National League. Its flagship team, which at the time wore all dark blue uniforms and caps, donned long ivory colored socks that stretched from their foot to their knee and became dubbed “The White Stockings.”
Anson was the team’s powerhouse hitter and led the club to capture its first pennant that year. Two years later, following on that success, he was struck out only once in the entire season, and the next year was named manager of the team.
He continued to play on the field in that role with the White Stockings building up an unprecedented .798 winning percentage. Anson himself captained the team to three more pennants and maintained a .400 batting average. He became known as “The King of Swing” and was noted as one of the most recognized names in sports around the world.
A dark chapter in this stellar career came in 1883 when he objected to playing against the Toledo, Ohio team that included an African American catcher (Anson, in later years, embraced Black athletes and enthusiastically played on the field with members of what would become the Negro League). His star continued to shine through the late 1880s, including two more pennants and a World Series.
A shadow, however, would be cast over him and all of baseball at the beginning of the ensuing decade when, in a dispute over pay and other issues, ballplayers walked out on their teams and Anson formed his own branch, which he called the Players League, captaining its flagship club, the Chicago Colts. The rift between athletes and management was ultimately resolved and the National League restored to prominence, but resentment by many players reduced Anson’s standing in the sport.
By that time in his 40s, his performance on the diamond began to wane, hitting less than a hundred runs by the end of the 1892 season. He remained in the line up until 1897, completing his Chicago career with a batting average of .285 that year. Anson retired in the fall at age 45, the oldest player to that time in the history of the league. Raised on small-town pioneer values, he turned down a $50,000 pension, terming it “charity.”
Anson never lost the itch to play, though, and went on to serve a year as manager of the New York Giants and then returned to the Windy City where he organized a minor league team, reviving the name of the Colts, and built a baseball stadium in which they could play, on the city’s south side (not to be confused with Comiskey Park, which was later erected on 35th Street as home to the American League’s White Sox franchise). At 55, he chose himself to play first base but despite his fame was unable to finance and attract top athletes. The business folded in 1910.
Anson soon lost the club, the stadium and his home in bankruptcy and moved quietly to reside with his in-laws. There, he lived off scant residuals he made from sales of a biography he wrote and occasional speaking engagements on the Vaudeville circuit as a former celebrity.
Anson died in 1922, penniless. The National League took up a collection and paid for his burial at Oak Woods Cemetery in Chicago. His grave is marked by a granite marker bearing two baseball bats crossed at the center.
Now, as we think of Kevin Costner’s character, Ray Kinsella, sacrificing nearly everything to fulfill his dream of baseball, let us not forget another Iowa legend who lost it all in pursuing his passion of America’s pastime.
A monument has been put up in downtown Marshalltown honoring the Anson family legacy. Although it has received little attention and only an occasional few visitors, perhaps the aura of the Major League contest in Dyersville will prove the mantra true once again: “if you build it, they will come.”
Dreams fulfilled: An Iowan who helped make baseball the national pastime
Adrian Anson was the Iowa-born “King of Swing” in early professional baseball. His records were not exceeded until the likes of Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth.
www.thegazette.com
