If my memory serves me rightly it was some time in the year 1866 that
the Marshalltown Base-Ball Club, of which my father was a prominent
member, sprung into existence, and among the men who made up the team at
that time were many who have since become prominent in the history not
only of Marshalltown but of Marshall County as well, among them being
Captain Shaw, Emmett Green, A. B. Cooper, S. R. Anson and the old
gentleman himself, it being owing to my father's exertions that
Marshalltown acquired the county seat, and he has since served the town
as both Mayor and Councilman and seen it grow from a single log cabin to
a prosperous city.
Prior to the organization of this team base-ball had been played there
in a desultory fashion for some time, but with its formation the fever
broke out in its most virulent form, and it was not many weeks before
the entire town had gone base-ball crazy, the fever seemingly attacking
everybody in the place save the baby in arms, which doubtless escaped
merely because of its extreme youth and lack of understanding.
In the absence of any records relating to those early days it is
impossible for me to say just who, the Marshalltown team beat and who it
did not, but I do know that long before I became a member of it and
while I was still playing with the second nine, which went by the name
of the "Stars," the team enjoyed a ball-playing reputation second to
none in the State and the doings of "our team" every week occupied a
conspicuous place in the columns of the local papers, the editors of
which might have been seen enjoying the sport and occupying a front seat
on the grass at every game, with note book in hand recording each and
every play in long-hand, for the score book which has since made matters
so easy for the game's chroniclers had not then been perfected and the
club's official scorer kept a record of the tallies made by means of
notches cut with his jack-knife in a stick provided for the occasion.
Prior to June, 1867, the Marshalltown team had acquired for itself a
reputation that extended throughout the length and breadth of the State,
and at Waterloo, where a tournament was given, they had beaten
everything that came against them. In a tournament given at Belle Plaine
in either that year or the next they put in an appearance to contest for
a silk flag given by the ladies of that town, but so great was the
respect that they inspired that the other visiting clubs refused to play
against them unless they were given the odds of six put-outs as against
the regular three. This was handicapping with a vengeance, but even at
these odds the Marshalltown aggregation was too much for its competitors
and the flag was brought home in triumph, where, as may be imagined, a
great reception awaited the players, the whole town turning out en masse
to do them honor.
There was nothing too good for the ball players of those days and they
were made much of wherever they chose to go. A card of invitation that
recently came into my possession and that illustrates this fact, reads
as follows:
Empire Base Ball Club.
Yourself and lady are cordially invited to attend a Social Party at
Lincoln Hall, on Thursday Evening, June 27, 1867, given under the
auspices of the Empire Base Ball Club of Waterloo, complimentary to
their guests, the Marshalltown B. B. C.
While this aggregation of home talent was busily engaged in acquiring
fame but not fortune let no one think for a moment that I was
overlooking my opportunities, even though I were only a member of the
second nine. On the contrary, I was practicing early and late, and if I
had any great ambition it was to play in the first nine, and with this
end in view I neglected even my meals in order that I might become
worthy of the honor.
My father was as enthusiastic over the game as I was myself and during
the long summer seasons the moment that we had swallowed our supper, or,
rather, bolted it, he and I would betake ourselves to the ball grounds,
where we would practice until the gathering darkness put a stop to our
playing.
My brother Sturgis, who was also a member of the team, was not so
enthusiastic over base-ball as were my father and myself, and he would
finish his supper in a leisurely fashion before following us to the
grounds. He was far above the average as a player, however, and excelled
both as a thrower and a batsman. I have seen him on more than one
occasion throw a ball a distance of from 125 to 130 yards, and in a game
that was played at Omaha, Neb., he is credited with making the longest
hit ever seen there, the old-timers declaring that he knocked the ball
out of sight, which must be true, because nobody was ever able to find
it.
It was some time after the tournaments at Belle Plaine and Waterloo
before I was promoted to the dignity of a first-niner, and then it was
due to the solicitation of my father, who declared that I played as good
ball as anybody in the team, even if I was "only a kid."
If ever there was a proud youngster I was one at that particular time,
and I think I justified the old gentleman's good opinion of me by
playing fairly good ball, at least many of my friends were good enough
to tell me so.
With my father playing third base, my brother playing center field and
myself playing second base the Anson family was pretty well represented
on that old Marshalltown nine, and as the team held the State
championship for several years the Anson trio must at least have done
their share of the playing.
It was while I was away at Notre Dame that misfortune came to
Marshalltown. The Des Moines Club challenged for the flag and the home
team accepted the defy. The Des Moines organization was then one of the
strongest in the State. The game was played at Marshalltown, and to the
horror and astonishment of the good people of that town, who had come to
look upon their club as invincible, Des Moines won, and when they went
back to the State capital they took the emblem of the championship with
them.
This emblem I determined the town should have back, and immediately upon
my return from the Indiana College I organized a nine and challenged for
the trophy. That team was made up as follows:
Kenny Williams, pitcher; Emmett Green, catcher; A. B. Cooper, A. C.
Anson and Henry Anson on the bases; Pete Hoskins, shortstop; Sam Sager,
Sturgis Anson and Milton Ellis in the outfield; A. J. Cooper,
substitute.
We had the best wishes of the town with us when we departed for Des
Moines and were accompanied by quite a delegation of the townspeople who
were prepared to wager to some extent on our success. The game was
played in the presence of a big crowd and when we came back to
Marshalltown the flag came with us and there it remained until, with the
other trophies that the club had accumulated, it went up in smoke.
The night of our return there was "a hot time in the old town," and had
there been any keys to the city I am pretty certain that we would have
been presented with them.
The fame of the Forest City Club of Rockford, one of the first
professional clubs to be organized in the West, had been blown across
the prairies until it reached Marshalltown, so when they came through
Iowa on an exhibition tour after the close of their regular season we
arranged for a game with them. They had been winning all along the line
by scores that mounted up all the way from 30 to 100 to 1, and while we
did not expect to beat them, yet we did expect to give them a better run
than they had yet had for their money since the close of the
professional season.
The announcement of the Rockford Club's visit naturally excited an
intense amount of interest all through that section of the country and
when the day set for the game arrived the town was crowded with visitors
from all parts of the State. Accompanying the Forest Citys was a large
delegation of Chicago sporting men, who had come prepared to wager their
money that the Marshalltown aggregation would be beaten by a score
varying all the way from 8 to 20 to 1, and they found a good many takers
among the townspeople who had seen us play and who had a lot of
confidence in our ability to hold the visitor's score down to a low
figure.
Upon the result of the game A. G. Spalding, who was the pitcher for the
Forest Citys, alleges that my father wagered a cow, but this the old
gentleman indignantly denies, and he further declares that not a single
wager of any sort was made by any member of the team.
Be this as it may, one thing is certain, and that is that the game was
witnessed by one of the largest crowds that had ever gathered around a
ball ground in Marshalltown, and we felt that we had every reason to
feel elated when at the end of the ninth inning the score stood at 18 to
3 in their favor.
So disgusted were the visitors and their followers over the showing that
we had made in spite of their best endeavors that they at once proceeded
to arrange another game for the next day, cancelling another date ahead
in order to do so.
Speaking of this second game my father says: "The rules of the game at
that time made the playing of a 'Ryan dead ball' compulsory, and this it
was the province of the home club to furnish, and this was the sort of a
ball that was played with the first day. To bat such a ball as this to
any great distance was impossible and our fielders were placed well in
for the second game, just as they had been in the first, but we soon
discovered that the balls were going far beyond us, and on noting their
positions when our turn to bat came we found their fielders placed much
further out than on the day before. My first impression was that the
great flights taken by the ball were due to the tremendous batting, but
later on I became convinced that there was something wrong with the
ball, and called for time to investigate the matter.
"On questioning our unsophisticated management I discovered that the
visitors had generously (?) offered to furnish the ball for the second
game, as we had furnished the ball for the first, and had been allowed
to do so. We later learned that they had skinned the liveliest kind of a
'Bounding Rock' and re-covered it with a 'Ryan Dead Ball' cover. This
enabled them to get ahead at the start, but after we had learned of the
deception we held them down so close that they won back but a very small
share of the money that they had lost on the game of the day before,
though they beat us by a score of 35 to 5.
"Let me say right here, too, that the visitors had their own umpire with
them, and he was allowed to umpire the game. He let Al Spalding do about
as he pleased, and pitch as many balls as he wished without calling
them, and once when I was at the bat and he could not induce me to hit
at the wild ones that he was sending in he fired a vicious one straight
in my direction, when, becoming irritated in my turn, I dropped the bat
and walked out in his direction with a view of administering a little
proper punishment to the frisky gentleman. He discovered what was
coming, however, and meekly crawled back, piteously begging pardon and
declaring it all a mistake. There was one result of the game, however,
which was that when the Rockford people were organizing a professional
nine they wrote to Marshalltown and tried to secure the whole Anson
family, and Adrian, who was still only a boy, was allowed to sign with
them, I retaining his older brother at home to aid me in my business."
I am inclined to think that the old gentleman is mistaken in the
substitution of a "Bounding Rock" for a "Ryan Dead Ball" in that game,
although I do remember that the stitching was different from anything
that we had ever seen before, and it may be that we were fooled as he
has stated. If so the trick was certainly a clever one.
That same fall Sager and Haskins were engaged by the Rockford team, and
I have always thought that it was due to the representations made by
them that I was engaged to play with the Forest Citys the following
season. I signed with them for a salary of sixty-six dollars a month,
which was then considered a fairly good salary for a ball player, and
especially one who was only eighteen years old and a green country lad
at that.
All that winter Sager and I practiced as best we could in the loft of my
father's barn and I worked as hard as I knew how in order to become
proficient in the ball-playing art.
Before saying farewell to Marshalltown and its ball players let me
relate a most ludicrous incident that took place there some time before
my departure. A feeling of most intense rivalry in the base-ball line
existed between Des Moines and Clinton, Iowa, and one time when the
former had a match on with the latter I received an offer of fifty
dollars from the Clinton team to go on there and play with them in a
single game.
Now fifty dollars at that time was more money than I had ever had at any
one time in my life, and so without consulting any one I determined to
accept the offer. I knew that I would be compelled to disguise myself in
order to escape recognition either by members of the Des Moines team or
by some of the spectators, and this I proceeded to do by dying my hair,
staining my skin, etc.
I did not think that my own father could recognize me, when I completed
my preparations and started to the depot to take the train for Des
Moines, but that was where I made a mistake. The old gentleman ran
against me on the platform, penetrated my disguise at once and asked me
where I was going. I told him, and then he remarked that I should do no
such thing, and he started me back home in a hurry. When he got there he
gave me a lecture, told me that such a proceeding on my part was not
honest and would ruin my reputation. In fact, he made me thoroughly
ashamed of myself. The team from Clinton had to get along without my
services, but I shall never forget what a time I had in getting the dye
out of my hair and the stain from my skin.
That fifty dollars that I didn't get bothered me, too, for a long time
afterwards. I am glad now, however, that the old gentleman prevented me
getting it. Dishonesty does not pay in base-ball any better than it does
in any other business, and that I learned the lesson early in life is a
part of my good fortune.