Anson on the “Best Sports”
The Chicago Daily-News, during a lazy, off-season day before the 1888 season, asked Cap Anson his opinion of the “best sports for young men to engage,” Anson said:
“Baseball, with football as a second choice. For indoor sport, I prefer handball with sparring next.”
Anson
Anson questioned one sport for men:
“Tennis is all right, but the tendency is too effeminacy.”
He said the reason football was his second choice:
“Yes, a big man generally believes in football, and comes out of a tussle first best. But it’s a shame to send the college striplings to the front the way they do and then mob them. Football, as I have witnessed it, has seemed to me to be mod rule illustrated. Baseball is much preferable, and the percentage of danger is nothing worth mentioning.”
As for “light sparring,” Anson said:
“(A) good all-around amateur athlete can do enough shoulder hitting ordinarily to protect himself or punish a rascal who invites a knockout blow. This fancy talk about scientific principles of attack and defense I take no stock in. You can put it down as a rule that the man who misbehaves himself in public is a coward. One blow from the shoulder will settle him.”
Anson Puts it to use
“Light sparring” apparently paid off for Anson.
In 1888, Time Murnane of The Boston Globe said Anson excelled as a wrestler, telling the story he said took place in 1875:
“We remember a bout he had with Johnny Dwyer, the late pugilist, in Johnnie Clark’s place in Philadelphia,” located at the corner of 8th and Vine, the two-story complex hosted fights and was a bar that was frequented by boxers and ballplayers.”
Dwyer
Murnane said of “Dwyer was awarded the bout,” but the opinion of many gathered at the bar was that Taylor had won.
“Anson thought Taylor had the best of it, and so expressed himself in the hearing of Dwyer. The pugilist got a little hot and turned to Anson saying: ‘Well, you’re a big fellow, but I’d like to put you on your back.’ ‘Well,’ retorted the ball tosser, ‘you can’t commence any too soon.’
“The boys pulled off their coats and went at it, catch-as-catch-can. Anson had his man flat on his back in less than a minute. Dwyer settled, and was introduced to the ball tosser, and was much surprised when he learned he had been up against Anson, whom he admired so much on the ball field.”
The J.M. Ward Workout
The Boston Globe said in 1888: “John Ward does not believe in gymnasium or Southern trip training,” and quoted Ward from his just released book “Baseball: How to Become a Player:
Ward
“The best preliminary practice for a ball player, outside of actual practice at the game, is to be had in a hand-ball court. The game itself is interesting, and one will work up a perspiration without noticing the exertion; it loosens the muscles, quickens the eye, hardens the hands, and teaches the body to act quickly with the mind; it affords every movement of the ball field except batting, there is little danger from accident, and the amount of exercise can be easily regulated. Two weeks in a hand-ball court will put a team in better condition to begin a season than any Southern trip, and in the end be less expensive to the club.”
Tip’s Suspension
James “Tip” O’Neill led the American Association with a .435 batting average in 1887, in 1888, despite being sick and injured for large parts of the season, he led the league in hitting again; hitting .335.
Despite the second straight batting title, O’Neill drew the ire of owner Chris von der Ahe throughout the season. The situation came to a head in late September. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said:
“(O’Neill) was sick earlier in the year and tried to play ball in poor condition. Of course, he did not show up well, and was consequently censured, unjustly perhaps, but not unjustifiably, for he did not say that he was really ailing.
“On (September 21) he complained again of being sick and unable to play good ball.”
O’Neill
The paper said von der Ahe ordered O’Neill to visit the team doctor:
“O’Neill replied in somewhat warm language. This incensed Mr. von der Ahe and he suspended O’Neill.”
The Browns owner told the paper:
“I have nothing against Mr. O’Neill, but if I’m going to run my team I propose to run it to suit myself and not my players, and I will not tolerate impudence. I’m ready to hear their grievances, if they have any, but I cannot afford to take impertinence. I will keep O’Neill suspended until he decides he is ready to play good ball or is willing to show that he is really sick and deserving of sympathy.”
O’Neill, who The Post-Dispatch called “a splendid fellow…A little stubborn, perhaps,” was back in the lineup within three days and the Browns won their fourth straight American Association championship.
Baseball History Daily 
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