Cap Anson 4: Bigger Than Babe Ruth: Captain Anson of Chicago

by Howard W. Rosenberg

Overview

Cap Anson was baseball's original superstar and, for well over a century, has remained the player who received the wittiest coverage, over a long playing and post career. On the heels of his landmark 2004 definitive biography of early baseball's biggest media sensation (and one other early superstar)--Hall of Famer Mike Kelly, whom legendary Boston Globe columnist (and J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner) Harold Kaese called "probably the most popular p! layer in all of Boston baseball history"--Howard W. Rosenberg now focuses on the player called by H. H. Westlake of Baseball Magazine "probably the most independent character baseball ever knew."

Rosenberg, who has demonstrated an unerring respect for the totality of baseball history, applies the same standard in his second full-length, definitive biography of a one-of-a-kind Hall of Famer. Also based on dozens of Cap's personal letters that have never been mentioned before, CAP ANSON 4: BIGGER THAN BABE RUTH: CAPTAIN ANSON OF CHICAGO traces Cap's life starting from childhood, when he grew up in a log cabin, through the one-of-a-kind gruff persona he took on as captain (player)-manager of the famous Chicago (National League) White Stockings (which later became the Colts) for a major league-record 19 straight years as an on-the-field leader with the same team. Then the book explores his fascinating post career that included his tenure as city clerk of Chicago, the city's number three! post, 100 years ago (1905 to 1907); founding of a semi-pro team called Anson's Colts; his personal bankruptcy; and a long vaudeville career that is unmatched by any Hall of Fame player. Cap was the first big star in the game's history to age fully, healthily and colorfully in the public eye (to the reasonably ripe old age of three days before his 70th birthday).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780972557436
Publisher:	Tile Books
Publication date:	04/28/2006
Series:	Cap Anson Series
Pages:	557
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 10.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Howard W. Rosenberg, a native of Roslyn, N.Y., is writing a series of topical and biographical books on early baseball, with Cap Anson the organizing feature. A 1987 graduate of Cornell University, he has worked in Washington, D.C., as a wire service reporter for Jewish newspapers and as an editor for the federal government. He lives in Arlington, Va.

What People are Saying About This

Kyle McNary

"A truly rich and complex biography; Rosenberg does for Anson what the late Robert Peterson did for black baseball."
—author of Ted 'Double Duty' Radcliffe: 36 Years Of Pitching and Catching In Baseball's Negro Leagues

Editorial Reviews

…makes a compelling case for Anson's primacy as the most important figure in baseball history—even greater than Babe Ruth.—Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 25, 2006

[Rosenberg] continues his series on [the 19th-century] era's baseball with the controversial Chicago captain and manager at its center.—Todd Leopold, CNN.com, April 6, 2006

…a balanced reckoning of Anson's role in creating the "color barrier" that excluded African-Americans from professional baseball for sixty years.—Gabriel Schechter, History Review of New Books, Fall 2006

…this hard-cover book is replete with great baseball history that will entertain and enlighten the true baseball fan.—David Zweifel, Madison (Wisc.) Capital Times, March 28, 2007

Rosenberg's dogged attention to detail, no matter how trivial, gives the reader the most complete portrait ever about Cap Anson.—Bob D'Angelo, Tampa Tribune, June 25, 2006

From the Publisher

New York Sun