Frank Chance Takes the Yankees’ Managerial Helm, January 8, 1913

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Frank Chance Takes the Yankees’ Managerial Helm!

We all know that Frank Chance was a Hall-of-Fame manager. Under his leadership, the Cubs won four pennants in five years and two World Championships. The team is recognized as one of the great dynasties in baseball history. So highly valued was Frank Chance that by 1910 he became the highest paid player in baseball, earning as much as $25,000 ($672,232 in current dollars). The Cubs didn’t win another World Series until the arrival of Joe Maddon on Chicago’s north side, 108 years later. But how many baseball fans are aware that “The Peerless Leader” also managed the Yankees?

That’s right…on January 8, 1913, one hundred four years ago yesterday, Chance started his less-than-successful tenure at the helm of a lowly New York Yankees team (formerly known as the Highlanders). He signed a three-year contract worth the astronomical sum at the time of $120,000 ($3,042,020 in current dollars).

In the featured photo above, we see a beautiful colorization of Frank Chance in 1913 as New York  manager, just back from Spring training in Bermuda, done by our resident baseball artist, Don Stokes. (Check out Don’s Facebook page)

While Chance’s stellar managerial record with the Cubs from 1905 to 1912 was the highest in franchise history (768-389, .664), his record in New York pales in comparison (.117-168, .411), proving once again that “it’s hard to win if you don’t have good players.” That’s an old baseball adage that Casey Stengel validated many years later.

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Frank Chance was also a very good ball player. During his 17-year Dead Ball Era playing career (1898-1914), Chance hit .296, with 1274 hits, 79 home runs, 598 RBIs, 798 runs, and a .394 on-base percentage. He led the league twice in stolen bases, and once in runs scored. His OPS+ of 135 places him well above his major league contemporaries (100 being the major league average). He led the team in batting average in 1903, 1904, 1905 and 1907. Chance is the Cubs’ all-time career leader in stolen bases, with 400. In 20 World Series games, he hit .310 with six RBIs and 10 stolen bases.

Of course, Frank Chance is primarily remembered as part of the famous Cub double-play combination of Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance. The trio were immortalized in the popular poem, “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,”written by the 28-year-old newspaper columnist Franklin Pierce Adams in July 1910. Many baseball historians regard the poem as significantly contributing to the Hall-of-Fame selection of the three players, although Chance’s managerial statistics certainly qualify him. His 11-year overall record as a manager, including a year with the Red Sox in 1923, was 946–648 (.593).

Chance was a strict disciplinarian who frowned upon fraternization, known to fine his players for even as much as shaking hands with members of the opposing team. He also preached moderation in their personal lives, including avoiding alcohol. He was said to have forced center fielder Solly Hofman to delay his wedding until after the baseball season, so that his marriage wouldn’t impair his play. In August 1911, Chance suspended Joe Tinker for the remainder of the season for using profanity, although he reinstated Tinker two days later.

During the baseball off-seasons, Chance worked as a prizefighter. James J. Corbett and John L. Sullivan, among the best fighters of the era, both considered Chance “the greatest amateur brawler of all time.”

Frank Chance, a great ball player, manager, and leader, died on September 15, 1924, aged 47, shortly after agreeing to manage the White Sox. Let’s take a moment to remember the great Hall-of-Fame manager, Frank Chance!

Gary Livacari 

Photo Credits: Featured photo colorized by Don Stokes; All from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited from Frank Chance Wikipedia page; statistics from Baseball Reference

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