The legend goes that Cap Anson, asked what he'd like his tombstone to say, replied, " I guess one line will be enough: 'Here lies a man that batted .300.'"
There are three reasons we care, for our purposes today, about Anson's response. The first is the throat-clearing opener: "one line will be enough." Anson had one of the game's most extraordinary and complicated major league baseball careers. He was baseball's first superstar, rapped 3,435 hits, won five pennants and almost 1,300 games as a manager, and played a prominent and despicable role in preserving segregation in the sport.