In his prime Adrian “Cap” Anson was the best ballplayers of his era. Besides his superior batting and leadership he brought to every club he played with, Anson is also the figurehead for baseball’s color line, having refused to play against Moses Fleetwood Walker in 1884, an incident that indirectly resulted in Walker and all the other African-Americans banned from organized baseball until 1946. Anson’s post-baseball life was littered with unsuccessful business ventures, most famously a ginger beer that exploded on store shelves.

However, Anson was able to leverage his popularity in Chicago into being elected as City Clerk in 1905, but this, too, was doomed as he was accused of ineffectiveness and voted out a year later. It was during that short period as City Clerk that he penned this 2-page letter to his children. The letter is dated October 31, 1906 and is handwritten in fountain pen on Anson’s personal City Clerk letterhead. Addressing "Carroll & Cherry + Adele,” the old ballplayer asks why he has not received a letter from them and inquiries about the state of their business and debts, and if they had heard from his brother. Anson then goes on to tell them that he needs them in Chicago and that the business he was planning on opening is taking longer than he would like. This likely was a bowling and billiard parlor Anson owned around this time that would, like most of his business ventures, eventually prove unsuccessful. He ends the letter with “your loving father AC Anson.” The two pages show toning from age along with horizontal folds from mailing. The letters have been professionally matted and framed along with a large print of Anson in his prime as a member of the Chicago White Stockings. Measuring 39 ½ x 15 inches, the display comes with a LOA from PSA/DNA for the signature.

Auction Notepad