Personally, I think assigning Anson responsibility for baseball’s color barrier is ridiculous. He was field manager of the Chicago Nationals, but the team, and really the National League, was run by Albert Spalding. Spalding was the consummate businessman. If the public at that time wanted integrated baseball, then there would have been integrated baseball. Sad to say, but the color barrier reflected widespread ignorance and intolerance which took decades to be reduced to the point where the color barrier could finally come down.
|