team, called 'The Runaway Colt', and subsequently the team was called Anson's Colts."(TSNBBG) Actually, it was the other way around. The play was written and produced late in 1895, and its name was inspired by the club's nickname. (The National Pastime, Number 25, SABR, 2005, "Anson on Broadway", p.74-81.) In any case, 1890 is the usual date given for the replacement of "White Stockings" with "Colts" as the club's predominant nickname. The 1894 Spalding Guide refers to the team - once - as "Anson's so-called Chicago 'colts'." The Colts name would stick around, off and on, for the next 15 years. It was reinforced by a squad of many young players, contrasting with the veteran Anson, who had become known as "Pop" by the 1890s. Anson left the team after the 1897 season, and the local papers called the team the Orphans for a while, because they had lost their "Pop". They apparently still had some "pop" in their bats, finishing fourth in a twelve-team league. "A Chicago newspaper held a contest to select a new name. The term Cubs was chosen, but as other newspapers ignored the name at first, it was some time before the new nickname came into general use. Fred Hayner, sports editor of the Chicago Daily News, was among the first to use the name of Cubs." (TSNBBG) The 2007 Arcadia book called Chicago Cubs: Tinker to Evers to Chance, by Art Ahrens, contains a series of facts in various places on pages 9–56 that add up to an explanation of the gradual transition from "Colts" to "Cubs": The newspapers predominantly called the club the "Orphans" during 1898–1900. The few promising players on the club jumped to the new American League in 1901, including several to the White Sox. The erstwhile "Orphans" had so few good players left that the papers called them the "Remnants", as the 53–86 team's percentage would stand as the club's record low for the next 60 years. When Frank Selee took over the managerial reins in 1902, his youth program revived the older nickname, and the team was again called the "Colts" in the papers frequently. At that same time, also referencing the team's youthful squad, some writers starting calling the team the "Cubs". The "Cubs" nickname took hold over the next four seasons. Sporting Life leaned toward "Cubs", while The Sporting News favored "Colts", as did the Chicago Tribune.