Theodore “Bubbles” Anderson will forever hold the honor as the only Colorado-born baseball player to play in the Negro Leagues. And he did so at the tender age of 17, just two years after the Negro Leagues were established in 1920.
Born on November 4, 1904, to the parents of George and Hattie Anderson, “Bubbles” Anderson’s career in the Negro League spanned four seasons. He played second base and catcher for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1922-23. He moved east and started the season playing second base with the Washington Potomacs and later for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1924. Finally, he finished his career with the Indianapolis ABCs in 1925.
Unfortunately, “Bubbles” Anderson’s baseball career was cut short. On a road trip to Kansas City to face the Monarchs, he left the Indianapolis ABC’s and returned home to Denver due to illness. He was only 20 years old.
According to Baseball Reference, the 5’8’, 151 pound right-hander had 395 career at-bats, 99 hits, a .251 career batting average, 47 RBIs, stole 10 bases, scored 63 runs, and hit no home runs. In the book “The Denver Post Tournament”, Baseball Historian Jay Sanford states that “Bubbles” Anderson was one of Colorado’s ‘two premiere black players of the Twentieth Century.’ The other was Tom “Pistol Pete” Albright, who was born in Crockett, Texas, and played Negro League Baseball in 1929 and 1937.
Before his time in the Negro Leagues, “Bubbles” Anderson played for the Denver White Elephants. The White Elephants were Colorado’s longest-lasting black baseball team, active from 1915-1935. They were owned by Albert Henderson Wade Ross. A.H.W. Ross was a Denver businessman, politician, enthusiastic baseball fan, and the owner of the Rossonian Hotel, which still stands to this day at 2650 Welton Street in Denver’s historic Five Points neighborhood.
In the following years, “Bubbles” Anderson served as a soldier in the U.S. Army in World War II. He never married, didn’t have children, and worked as a janitor.
On March 14, 1943, at six in the morning, “Bubbles” Anderson died at his home on 2550 Clarkson Street in Denver. He died of a gastric ulcer at the age of 38. “Bubbles” Anderson’s body was laid to rest March 18, 1943, at Fairmont Cemetery in an unmarked grave. It wasn’t until 2005 that a headstone was placed on the grave.
In his obituary written in The Denver Star on March 20, 1943, the weekly paper that served the African American community in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico noted that his funeral service was officiated by Reverand A.C. Dones, who was the sixths pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Denver.
Sanford describes “Bubble Anderson as a “smooth fielding, long ball hitting, second baseman, and a hero to a generation of Denver’s baseball fans.”
By Justin Adams, CBS4
