Adrian Cap Anson (3 results)

Hardcover. 1st Edition. Bound in finely woven green cloth with pictorial decorated front boards with a few touches of light flecking to the edges. Wear and fraying to the top and bottom of the spine ends. A rather worn and used copy with hinges reglued. Charming floral endpapers and some damaged top edges to the inner corners of the preliminary pages. Generally clean and tight throughout with very interesting full-page photos as illustrations. With 16 pages of ads in the back. A serviceable copy of this scarce baseball book. Adrian Constantine Anson (1852 1922), nicknamed "Cap" (for "Captain") and "Pop", was a Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman. Including his time in the National Association (NA), he played a record 27 consecutive seasons. Anson was regarded as one of the greatest players of his era and one of the first superstars of the game. Anson spent most of his career with the Chicago Cubs franchise (then known as the "White Stockings" and later the "Colts"), serving as the club's manager, first baseman and, later in his tenure, minority owner. He led the team to fiveNational League pennants in the 1880s. Anson was one of baseball's first great hitters, and probably the first to tally over 3,000 career hits.His contemporary influence and prestige are regarded by historians as playing a major role in establishing the racial segregation in professional baseball that persisted until the late 1940s. A 2006 biography of Anson that exhaustively examined 19th-century newspaper reporting related to him on the subject of racism reached the following conclusion: "As far as the nineteenth century, he rightfully should endure as the big leaguer who, until the late 1940s, was involved in the greatest number of reported negative incidents, on the field, relating to blacks." On several occasions, Anson refused to take the field when the opposing roster included black players.[6] The biography states, "But at the same time, his argumentative nature could be readily discounted by those around him. So, the notion that he had 'coattails' in persuading players and officials on other teams to do as he did is rather spurious." A lengthy 2016 essay by the same author focused on claims of Ansons alleged influence on the most noted vote in 19th-century professional baseball in favor of segregation: a July 14, 1887 one by the high-minor International League to ban the signing of new contracts with black players; the essay showed a range of authors as not having observed the line between fact and speculation on that alleged influence.After retiring as a player and leaving the Colts, Anson briefly managed the New York Giants. He ran several enterprises in Chicago, including opening a billiards and bowling hall and running a semi-professional baseball team he dubbed "Anson's Colts". Anson also toured extensively on the vaudeville circuit, performing monologues and songs. Many of his business ventures failed. As a result, Anson lost his ownership stake in the Colts (by then known as the Cubs) and filed for bankruptcy. Anson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. (Wikipedia) First Edition with matching dates of 1900 on the title and copyright pages.

Hardcover. Condition: VG+. No Jacket. Presumed 1st. Pub by Era Publishing Co., Chicago, same date on TP & CP, NAP, presumed 1st Edition. NOT exLib. VG+ or better cond. hardcover now in archivql grade Brodart, no dj. Green cloth over bds w/ black, white & red pict dec & lettering on cover & spine. Very light exterior soiling & wear. Book has been professionally restored, with new marble inside pastedowns & eps, o/w covers, spine & textblock are all original & intact. P/O's signature & place at top of title page, o/w book is unmarked. Illustrated in b&w. 339 / 3 / viii + 16pp publisher's advts. Square, straight, tight & clean except as noted, overall VG+ or better cond. Same or next day shipping. Please email any questions.

Hard Cover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Illustrated with black and white photographic plates. First edition, first printing. Original publisher's green cloth, spine lettered in blue, front cover with ball player illustration of Anson and lettering in blue. Very good, with light toning to spine, light wear to spine ends, some red staining to rear board, boards very slightly warped, lightly bumped corners, previous owner's stamp to front pastedown and frontispiece verso, light dampstaining to page edges, and occasional light soiling to pages. Overall, a solid copy, uncommon in this condition. A Ball Player's Career is considered the first baseball biography ever published in book form, where Anson recounts his professional baseball career and international goodwill tours. Anson led Chicago to six National League pennants in the 1880's, and still holds several Cubs franchise records, while being the only Cub in the 3,000-hit club. He was also one of the first 19th century baseball players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame (1939).