The ouster of Adrian C. "Cap" Anson as player, manager and part owner of the Chicago National League club Jan. 31 removed from baseball the player who best defined and symbolized it during the 19th century. Anson, 20 when the National Association was founded in 1871, had played professionally in every season since. On the field, he was the unquestioned star: the first to collect 3,000 hits, the first to drive in 100 runs (1884), and the first to manage a team to three straight pennants (1880-81-82). An original member of the White Stockings in 1876, he was their field manager for 19 seasons starting in 1879.

 

But off the field, Anson was truculent beyond the point of necessity. Particularly troublesome were his run-ins with the owners of the Chicago team, notably James Hart, who assumed the presidency in 1891.

 

Anson later said the hard feelings arose out of his refusal, in 1888, to contribute to a fund organized by Al Spalding to purchase for Hart a gift. More likely, Anson resented Hart's promotion over him to the club presidency. In 1893, with six years left on his current contract, Anson was asked by Hart to sign a new one and did so, not noticing at first that it was for only five years. Following the 1897 season, when Chicago finished ninth in the 12-team league, Hart asked the then 46-year-old Anson to step down as player and manager. When he refused, he was fired. His response to the suggestion of a public benefit in his honor was characteristic. "There is no reason why the public should give me anything."             Without Anson at the helm in 1898, the public rechristened the White Stockings with a new name: They became "the Orphans."

 

ELSEWHERE IN BASEBALL

 

Lizzie (Stroud) Arlington becomes the first woman to play professionally when she pitches for Reading of the Eastern League July 5.

Bill Duggleby, a pitcher for Philadelphia, hits a grand slam home run off New York's Cy Seymour in his first major league at bat April 21.

 

IN THE WORLD

 

The battleship U.S.S. Maine explodes Feb. 15 in Havana Harbor, touching off the Spanish-American War, which is declared April 25 and is ended by the Treaty of Paris Aug. 12