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For the Chicago Cubs, Cap Anson was the Leo Durocher of His Day
One big difference between the two, however
By William S. Bike
The manager of the Chicago National League ballclub was grumpy and irascible. Around the National League, lots of players, managers, umpires, and fans couldn’t stand him — and loved it when his team lost. And Chicago sportswriters made no secret of the fact that they thought that he was too old and out of touch to manage the team.
To Chicago Cubs fans of the late 1960s and early 1970s, that describes Leo Durocher. But that description defines another of the team’s managers: Adrian “Cap” Anson, who managed the club from 1879 to 1897.
Both Anson and Durocher argued with umpires more than other managers. Both enjoyed gambling, a pastime that Major League Baseball frowns upon for managers and players alike.
And after many years of managing, both were considered past their prime by continuing to employ strategies that were out of date.
For Durocher, the criticism was that he played his regulars all the time, instead of platooning in the modern way. For Anson, the criticism was that he waited for the big hit instead of using more strategy such has the hit-and-run. Ironically, the way Anson managed is generally the way baseball managers operate again today.
Among the other National League teams, Anson was “not at all popular,” the Boston Evening Record noted in 1891. Neither was Durocher. The resentment towards each manager led to speculation that when Chicago’s team collapsed in both 1891 and 1969, the league wanted it that way. In 1891, fans wondered why the teams who played in late September against Boston, the club that overtook Chicago, looked so bad. In 1969 Cub fans were outraged when an umpire called the New York Mets Tommie Agee safe at home when he clearly looked out, costing the Cubs a key game against their top rivals during the September stretch.
There is one huge difference between the two. Anson is considered by baseball historians to have been the driving force in segregating professional baseball in the 19th Century. While many players and managers of that era were prejudiced against Blacks, Anson took it a unique step further by refusing…
