100 Years Ago 2 Weekends Ago: Cap Anson/Rube Foster

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Posted By: Howard W. Rosenberg

The teams of Anson and Rube Foster were officially part of the top Chicago semi-pro league that year, and 1907 as well; and, I think both were in the league in 1909. Jimmy Ryan was on a different team in those seasons, and there was another former big leaguer or two in the league -- Jimmy "Nixey" Callahan was possibly the next-best known player in it.

In the sports world in general (and football in particular), the most notable player on Anson's team was Walter Eckersall; see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Eckersall

The blame-Anson-for-the-color-line argument is not based on any smoking gun, but rather conjecture. It's somewhat like folks going around saying Abner Doubleday invented baseball. Not sure, by the way, if the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in its exhibit about baseball's origins, bluntly states that Abner Doubleday and baseball have a mythical tie -- since that might be construed as upsetting the apple cart.