John Joseph Anderson (December 14, 1873 – July 23, 1949), nicknamed "Honest John", was a Norwegian-born American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

. He played fourteen seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) for the Brooklyn Grooms/Bridegrooms, Washington Senators, Brooklyn Bridegrooms/Superbas, Milwaukee Brewers/St. Louis Browns,

New York Highlanders The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

, Washington Senators, and

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

between 1894 and 1908."John Anderson Statistics and History"
"baseball-reference.com. Retrieved May 20, 2017. Anderson was the first of only three Major League baseball players to have been born in Norway. He first appeared in the National League in , when he signed with the

Brooklyn Grooms The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Califo ...

. He spent the next three full seasons with Brooklyn and was primarily used as an outfielder, and batted over .300 in both and . During the season, he was sold to the Washington Senators, only to be sold back to Brooklyn four months later. Nevertheless, he managed to have one of his best seasons, leading the National League with 22

triples TripleS (stylized as tripleS; Help:IPA/English, /ˈtɹɪpəl:ɛs/; ) is a South Korean girl group formed by MODHAUS. They aim to be the world's first decentralized K-pop idol group. The members will rotate between the group, sub-unit, and solo ac ...

and also leading the league in

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

and

extra-base hit In baseball, an extra-base hit (EB, EBH or XBH), also known as a long hit, is any base hit on which the batter is able to advance past first base without the benefit of a fielder either committing an error or opting to make a throw to retire anot ...

s. Anderson stayed in Brooklyn for the before being purchased by the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

of the newly formed American League. Anderson was one of the league's best hitters in the AL's first year as a Major League in . (In , the American League was still considered a

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

.) As the Brewers' first baseman, he finished second in the league in

base hit In baseball statistics, a hit (denoted by H), also called a base hit, is credited to a batter when the batter safely reaches or passes first base after hitting the ball into fair territory with neither the benefit of an error nor a fielder's ch ...

s and doubles, trailing only

Nap Lajoie Napoléon "Nap" Lajoie (; September 5, 1874 – February 7, 1959), also known as Larry Lajoie and nicknamed "The Frenchman", was an American professional baseball second baseman and player-manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for t ...

in both categories, ranked third in

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

behind Lajoie and

Buck Freeman John Frank "Buck" Freeman (October 30, 1871 – June 25, 1949) was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball at the turn of the 20th century. Listed at and , he both batted and threw left-handed. Freeman was one of the top sluggers of ...

, and was sixth in the league with a .330 average. He stayed with the franchise when it relocated to

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

in to become the Browns. He played two seasons in St. Louis and recorded virtually identical .284 batting averages in those years. On September 24, 1903, Anderson tried to steal second base when the base was already occupied. This particular mistake was often referred to as a "John Anderson play" in the early part of the centur

Anderson was dealt to the

before the season in exchange for Jack O'Connor (catcher), Jack O'Connor. He played one full season in New York and batted .278 with the club. He started the season in New York but was waived after a slow start. The Washington Senators (officially a different franchise from the team he played for in 1898) claimed him off of waivers, and he recovered to bat .279 on the season, good enough for ninth in the AL in the midst of the

dead-ball era In baseball, the dead-ball era was the period from around 1900 to the emergence of Babe Ruth as a power hitter in 1919, when he hit a then-major league record 29 home runs; only three players since 1890 had even hit 20. This era was characterized ...

. He remained in Washington for the next two seasons. In , Anderson tied for the American League lead in

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

s with

Elmer Flick Elmer Harrison Flick (January 11, 1876 – January 9, 1971) was an American professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball from 1898 to 1910 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Athletics, and Cleveland Bronchos/Naps ...

. He left Washington after his contract was purchased by the

for the season. Late that season, when the White Sox faced the

Cleveland Naps The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

with both involved in a tight pennant race, Anderson would prove to be the last out in the second ever perfect game in MLB's modern era, pitched by

Addie Joss Adrian "Addie" Joss (April 12, 1880 – April 14, 1911), nicknamed "the Human Hairpin", was an American professional baseball pitcher. He pitched for the Cleveland Bronchos of Major League Baseball, later known as the Naps, between 1902 and 191 ...

in a tight pitching duel that also saw Anderson's future Hall of Fame team mate

Ed Walsh Edward Augustine "Big Ed" Walsh (May 14, 1881 – May 26, 1959) was an American pitcher and manager in Major League Baseball. From 1906 to 1912, he had several seasons where he was one of the best pitchers in baseball. Injuries shortened his car ...

strikeout 15 and allow only one run. Anderson retired from the Major Leagues at the conclusion of the 1908 season. Anderson retired with a .290 career average, 50 home runs, and 978 runs batted in. He also finished his career with 124 triples, currently tying him for 91st place all-time in that category. He died at the age of 75 in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

References

External links

John Anderson
at Baseball Almanac
John Anderson
at Baseballbiography.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, John 1873 births 1949 deaths Major League Baseball first basemen Major League Baseball left fielders Brooklyn Grooms players Brooklyn Bridegrooms players Brooklyn Superbas players Washington Senators (1891–1899) players St. Louis Browns players New York Highlanders players Washington Senators (1901–1960) players Chicago White Sox players Milwaukee Brewers (1901) players Major League Baseball players from Norway People from Sarpsborg American League stolen base champions 19th-century baseball players Haverhill (minor league baseball) players Worcester (minor league baseball) players Providence Grays (minor league) players Norwegian emigrants to the United States

See also

References

External links