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Howard W. RosenbergThe book even goes back to the 1880s to take a few shots at the Capster, using arguments that my '06 (that's 2006) Anson bio refuted, such as that Anson kept a big league team from signing a black player in 1887. Murphy used the same after-the-fact sources that a parade of books have used, while mine used original articles from 1886 and 1887 from Newark and Jersey City. By the way, in the hullabaloo today, there is a vintage piece by yours truly in Trenton; see
http://www.nj.com/sports/times/index.ssf?/base/sports-3/1176609992170630.xml&coll=5
And ESPN is holding its own today in adding less-than-definitive (plain wrong?) info about 19th-century baseball:
At the top of the 1 p.m. hour, "The Blitz" ran a graphic for about 60 combined seconds that states, "60 years ago today Jackie Robinson became first black man to play in MLB."
My running theory with the world of ESPN is everything revolves around film reels or videotape. No videotape of the 19th century? Well, then, to ESPN, it's substandard history.