Anson to Zuber

Anson to Zuber is a wonderful read for baseball fans, especially so for Iowans who enjoy learning of their state's contributions to the national pastime. Jerry E. Clark's exhaustive research takes you across Iowa, from Des Moines to the German-speaking Amana Colonies to the now-defunct Downsville, as well as to major and minor league cities all around the United States and Canada. Along the way, he shows not only Iowa's roots in baseball but also major league baseball's roots in Iowa. Iowa-born players have been involved in many important baseball firsts. Montrose-born Cal McVey was on the roster of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, in 1869. Bill "Chick" Hoffer was the first to pitch in the brand new American League in 1901. Fred Clarke was the player-manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series back in 1903; and one of his players was Humboldt native Gus Thompson. Cap Anson was the first player to collect 3,000 hits and the first manager to win 1,000 games. One of the joys of this book is that it tells not just of the handful of Hall-of-Famers but also of the many who barely had time for a cup of coffee during their trips to the big leagues. Clark gives a sense of the players as more than batting averages or won-loss records, and reproductions of old and new baseball cards put faces to many of the names. You learn how players earned nicknames like "Silent" and "Old Folks," how others toiled for minor league teams like the Vinton Cinders and the Story City Norskies, and about life after baseball for men who never earned the large salaries associated with baseball today. Several went on to make contributions to baseball as umpires, scouts, coaches and managers; one (Johnny Rawlings) even managed a team in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Some achieved great success outside of baseball, including Billy Sunday, the famous evangelist, and Tom Walsh, whose construction company helped build the United Nations building and the Grand Coulee Dam. The lighter side of Anson to Zuber includes a number of anecdotes sure to bring a chuckle. These include stories of dangling from a railroad trestle during a training run, being traded for an airplane, and hitting corn cobs to impress a scout. You even learn how a muscle knot came to be called a "charley horse." Anson to Zuber is arranged as a collection of brief entries (organized in time periods), so you can skip around to read about certain players. After you have read about a few of these colorful boys of summer, though, you probably will end up reading it straight through with a bowl of cracker jack at your side.