Stovey is widely considered the greatest African-American pitcher of the 19th century, but discrimination barred him from the majors, forcing him to play for various minor league teams throughout the 1880s and 1890s.

White, writing in a baseball book bearing his name, stated that "arrangements were about completed for his transfer from the Newark club, when a brawl was heard from Chicago to New York.

Cap Anson, with all the venom of hate which would be worthy of a (Benjamin) Tillman or a (James) Vardaman of the present day, made strenuous and fruitful opposition to any proposition looking to the admittance of a colored man in the National League."

If so, since a single day elapsed between the game and the offer's rejection by Newark manager Hackett, it is highly unlikely that Anson, who was in St. Louis, would have weighed in.

[3] Anson and Stovey did cross paths later in 1887, when, according to contemporaneous reporting, on July 14, 1887, following a vote that morning by International League owners to approve no more contracts with black players, in a home exhibition game against Chicago that afternoon, Newark's Stovey and fellow black teammate Walker sat out because of Anson's objection.