Anson acted in ways that would not be tolerated today, because the sport's rules are stricter in certain respects. One was the relative freedom a captain had in his day to argue with the usually lone umpire. Also, starting in the latter 1880s, he often bet on baseball, mainly on his team's chances to win the pennant. And yet, he arguably stood out as the player with the greatest integrity. In that era, the big taboo was for players to take bribes to purposely lose games. Betting by players, managers, and owners was regarded as acceptable so long as they did not bet against their team doing well or associate with gamblers.