The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1910-07-22
major league clubs viii reveal some

Often clubs will trade one good
player for another because they r
over-supplied in one department and
weak in another, or because they be-
lieve another mar will At into the
team better; but money will not,
alone, make a team.
In spite Of the optimistic announce
ments early each season few mana
gers believe their teams will win PEN
nants. Most of them are content to
improve a few positions, and continue
to improve each year up to a stage
of development which justiles strain
ing every nerve to win highest honors.
The team that finishes sixth one year,
fifth the next and third the next may
be expected to make a strong fight for
the championship, but it is seldom
that more than three clubs have any
real hope of winning.
Usually ten years. frequently more.
r required to create a pennant-win-
ming team and 1t is of pennant-winning
caliber not more than three years be-
fore it begins to retrogade. Occasion
ally after reaching its highest form a
team collapses entirely in one sea-
SOL and the work must be begun all
over again. The New York High
landers, after coming within a game
Of the championship, collapsed the
following season to n%othingness. The
st. Louis Browns, with strong pen
nant possibilities. fell two games short
Of the 1908 American league cham
pionship and the following year was
the most wretched team in either
major league.
No team of young players " has
won a major league pennant, although
Boston and Philadelphia in 1909 came
near upsetting baseball tradition in
that respect.
Teams are built on various theories.
Comiskey, who has led more pennant-
winning teams than any other man,
works on the theory that pitchers and
condition will win. His teams al
ways are kept in top condition
throughout the season and he will go
to any lengths to get "air-tight" pitch
ers. Detroit and Pittsburg both are
teams built with the idea Of hitting
power first. The Chicago Cubs are
built on the theory of team work, in
side play and base running. The Bos-
ton American team is an aggregation
accumulated with the idea that speed
of foot will capture pennants.
The sale Of Clarkson al
Boston destroyed Anson's
ship club. The cause of t.
never was made public, but the real rea-
son was a woman, and the club was
compelled to sell the men, although
the act brought down the wrath of the
city upon them. The remnant OF. the
team fell into a rut. When James A.
Heart became president he saw that
the first step necessary was to get
rid of all the old stars-even Anson-
and begin making a new team. He
could not get rid of Arson until 1898.
when he brought back Tom Burns,
who proved a failure in two years.
Tom Lotus was tried for two years
and failed. Frank Selee, adopting
Harris ideas, began at the bottom to
create an entirely new club. 1t is ex-
tremely doubtful whether Selee ever,
would have made the team a pennant-
winner, on account of prejudices
against certain players. Selee's health
failed and Charles Murphy, who had
Just purchased the club, discovered a
leader.
The real beginning of the Chicago
Cubs was in March, 1898, when a big,
bowlegged awkward young player
came from the Pacific coast to be tried
as a catcher. Quiet, good-natured,
rather retiring of the field, serious,
and in deadly earnest when playing,
honest and sincere in everything,
Frank Leroy Chance reported at train
ing quarters at West Baden, Ind,
carrying a bunch of gnarled and :
wrecked fingers at the end of each
hand. Anyone who at that time had
predicted that Chance was to become
the leader Of the greatest club ever
organized would have earned a laugh.
He had no experience except the lit
tie gained in amateur games in Cali
fornia. He played with the Fresno
High School team in 1893, for two
years with Washington university at
Irvington. c., and he participated
in the great amateur tournament
played between all the school teams
of California, catching for Fresno,
which team finished close to Oakland
and Stockton. Bill LANCE, then with
the Chicago club, saw Chance and
recommended him for trial.
While awkward and unfinished,
pitchers who worked with him de-
clare that Chance from the first
showed his genius for leadership and
great skill In handling pitchers and
watching batters. His fearless reck-
l~essness brought him many injuries
as a catcher and twice he was nearly
killed.
There was not much sign of promise
of a championship team in Chicago
then. for Hart. in spite of his theories.