User:Fabrictramp/Cap Anson

Albert Spalding and James Hart
Anson first 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.

In 1876, when Anson was playing for Philadelphia, Spalding and William Hulbert lured Anson to the Chicago team, which Spalding now managed. After signing the contract, Anson had second thoughts (his wife did not want to leave her family in Philadelphia), and offered Spalding $1,000 to void the contract. Spalding held Anson to the contract, and Anson came to Chicago in March, 1876.

Spalding retired as a player and manager after the 1877 season, but continued as secretary, and later president, of the White Stockings. Anson became a player/manager of the team in 1879, and by 1889 had a 13% ownership.

In 1888 Spalding announced that the White Stockings, including Anson, and a "picked nine" from the rest of the National League would begin a World Tour after the end of the season. Spalding put up most of the money, but Anson invested $3,750 of his own. James Hart was hired as business manager and Anson developed an intense dislike for him.

After the Spalding stepped down as president of the Chicago club in 1891, he appointed James Hart to the position which Anson felt should have been his despite his dismal business record. Spalding, however, continued to run the club behind the scenes.

In December of 1892, Hart, with Spalding's blessing, reorganized the White Stockings into a stock company. Anson was required to sign a new contract, which ended in 1898 instead of 1899 as the previous one had. Anson spotted the error later, but said nothing, trusting that Spalding would honor the previous terms.

Hart began to undermine Anson's managerial decisions by reversing fines and suspensions imposed by Anson. By 1897 Anson had little control over his players; after Anson demanded a sportswriter print that Anson thought "the Chicago ball club is composed of drunkards and loafers who a throwing him down" his days as manager were numbered.

Spalding invited Anson and his wife on a four week journey to England in late November 1897. Spalding dropped many hints on the voyage, encouraging Anson to voluntarily retire, but Anson had no intention of doing so. Things remained in limbo until January 29 1898 when the Associated Press printed a statement by Spalding: "I have taken pains as a mediator to find out from Chicagoans how they feel about a change of management. There has been a decided undercurrent in favor... Lovers of baseball think that Anson has been in power too long."

After retirement
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 Spaulding. In 1900 he helped to organize a new version of the defunct American Association and was named its president. However, at the first sign of trouble he dissolved the league, 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.

One of Anson's few successful ventures was a billiards hall and 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.

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, a play written to take advantage of his fame. After an unsuccessful attempt at owning/managing a semi-pro team called "Anson's Colts", 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. He appeared in 1921 accompanied by his two daughters in an act written by Ring Lardner with songs by Herman Timberg.

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 cluf 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.

Personal life
In 1872 the 20 year old Anson met 13 year old Virginia Fiegal, the daughter of a Philadelphia bar and restaurant owner. Anson married Virginia on November 21 1876, and they remained married until her death in 1915. For the first seven years of their marriage, the couple lived in Chicago during the baseball season and Philadelphia during the off season, but eventually moved to Chicago year around.

The Ansons had seven children, three of whom would die in infancy. Daughter Grace was born in October 1877, son Adrian Hulbert was born in 1882 and died four days later, daughter Adele was born in April 1884, son Adrian Constantine Jr. was born in 1887 and died four months later, daughter Dorothy was born in 1889, son John Henry was born in 1892 and died four days later, and daughter Virginia Jeanette was born in 1899.