Chance, Frank L.
Baseball
b. Sept. 9, 1877, Fresno, CA
d. Feb. 15, 1924
The 6-foot, 190-pound Chance, nicknamed "Husk" for "husky" because of his size, joined the Chicago Cubs as a backup catcher in 1898. That was his role until the middle of the 1902 season, when he was moved to first base.
Chance didn't like changing positions, but his hitting improved when he became a starter. He batted .327 and led the league in stolen bases with 67 in 1903 and the following year he hit .310 and stole 42 bases.
Cubs' manager Frank Selee contracted tuberculosis in 1904 and could manage the team only intermittently. Chance was named field captain, meaning that he took over as manager when Selee wasn't available. In July of 1905, Chance formally became manager of the team.
In 1906, his first full year as a playing manager, the Cubs won a record 116 games. Chance batted .319, leading the league in stolen bases with 57 and in runs scored with 103. The Cubs lost the 1906 World Series to the Chicago White Sox, but they won pennants again in 1907 and 1908 and took the World Series from the Detroit Tigers both years.
Called the "Peerless Leader" by Chicago sportswriters, Chance guided the Cubs to a fourth pennant in 1910, but lost a five-game World Series to the Philadelphia Athletics. After the team finished second in 1911 and third in 1912, Chance was fired, enraging many Chicago fans.
He became playing manager of the New York Yankees in 1913 but was let go before the 1914 season ended. Chance owned and managed a minor league team in Los Angeles for two years, then remained out of baseball until 1923, when he managed the last-place Boston Red Sox.
Chance was the first baseman in the Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance double play combination made famous by a poem written in 1910 by New York newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams. The three were inducted together into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Chance is probably the only one who could have made it on his own.
In 1,287 major league games, Chance batted .296, with 200 doubles, 79 triples, 20 home runs, 797 runs scored and 596 RBI. He stole 401 bases.