[BioCRN]

On another board I wrote about my own Cap Anson in my Cubs collection. He's not a big mystery to many here, but opinions vary on the dude and how one might want to weigh the human being and the stats the human being produced playing baseball.

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Cap Anson is one of the all-time best players of the Cubs-linage teams. Based on longevity with the team and the numbers he put up while playing for the team, he had few (arguably no) peers.

22 seasons, 3012 hits, 527 doubles, 1880 RBIs, .331/.396/.448 slash line...19 years as a player/manager

He is not in the Cubs team HOF (a somewhat recent creation) because his legacy of institutionalizing racism in the overall game had more of an impact than his superstar-level production.

Saying stuff like "it was a different time" cheapens the work and anti-racism efforts of people of all color during the time he lived. His story is even more damning because he wasn't just racist, he used his power to make racism institutionalized into the game no matter what other teams wanted to do.

If anyone is interested in specifics, there are many and easily found via a web search. None of his actions were singular or transactional to a specific moment.

Why is he in my collection? He's statistically a Cubs legend, a baseball legend, and a shaper of the game's early professional years. My collection involves the good and bad of the game. I'm not ignoring his history, nor do I need the card as a "reminder" of his history. I accept my collection for what it is, a collection of Cubs players that were important or notable to the team. I share the history the players created, and I don't gloss over reality to make them more palatable.