The Washington herald., 1922-12-30
BASEBALL FANSI0oK TOW TO SEE WHAT MAllAG
CHANCE GETS J,
REAL T'ESTIN !:
COMING YEAR
Arseaess Lsxss vvin, 'Hase
opportuplsyb Show Iust
What ne Can Do 10: Bostons

Opportunity y Show lust
What ne Can Do in Boston,
By FRANK c. MENKE.
tcspsrighf. 1872. by Kias Fsp,ures
syndiezte. Incl
IF YOU have any tears to shed,
let 'em: fall upon the, silver
ing dome Of Frank Change.
For there is the man who now is
to be tested as to his. greatness
as basketball leader-without q
seeming earthly chance for; sue
cess. 81! - =. ;,,.,.:, 2.
Through: more than fifteen
years Chance has been4termed the
peerless leader" And through
just. so long a'stretch 1of time;
while his admirers termed him a.
truly great, there, were others
who maintained that he IS in
hnitely lacking in. real leader
ship ability and that what trans
pired while he was al the helm
Of the Chicago Cubs wss not Of
his making.
srhe worst dub II the world
could have managed the Cubs 6f
1905. 1907 and 1908 into champion
ships" declare the critics of Chance.
when he assumed MANAGEMENT Of
the club he fell heir tok one Of. TIN
7 greatest collections Of ball players.
that ever fought under one stand
ard. This gathering of such WON
deEful talent was due 10 Frank Va.
lee. who preceded Chance and who
had spent several years In building
II up to pepnanc heikhts. ~ = Z.
"Unfortunately for Selee he, was
deposed just at q time when success
was to crown his, efforts- And to-
Chance came the tfraits. of victory
and the glory Of triumph.
They have given Chance credit
for what the .Cnbs performed. but
1t wasn't Chance who did it. 1t was
Selee who, first Of all, welded. to-
gsther the Cub machine and it was
the machine itself. smooth fdnf1uS
tremendously powerful and with al,
irresistible force which steam-rolled
the opposition.
CHANCE RETIRED.
Chance retired from the manage.
-ment Of the Cubs in l9l2, A-year;
later he took fhe; hsrn ef rfre SstW,i
York, Yankees, : Great things were
expeefed-r from- him by the club;
owners-and BY the admirers of
Chance. They insisted that he
would prove TO the world there and
then that he was. a genius in the,
matter OF club leadership. - =,
But Chance was bust" Ths
Yankees could do no better than q
terrible seventh in the race Of 1913
and in midseason OF 1914 were
floundering around so badly that
Chance quit In disgust. He declared
that he did not-havs decent naake>
rial to work with and that his ef-
forts to build up a ball club were
severely handicapped by criticism
Of an unkind and unwarranted ma
ture from many sources. -
So that made things about $3.50
in relation to Frank Chance. He
was a wonder with the Cubs-took
rank among the greatest team pilots.
Of all time. he was D fearful :lir:;
Yer at the helm OF the Yankees,
! which failure might have been due
to his lack>ef NATURAL leadership
Iability-or il might have been due
TO many other causes beyond his
fFADED FROM PICTURE.
Chance faded from the big lea que
picture after 1914 and has been
out of baseball for eight years.
Through all that onrush OF time
there has ever been within HIM
the ambition 10 get one, more
chance as n team leader so that
he could demonstrate to the, skep=
civ u In -
could lift even a mediocre outfit
to lofty heights in the baseball
world.
The opportunity has come to
ChSnce-but what a terrible op-
portunity il is. He is to mana re-
the Boston Red Sox in 1S233, No
more hopeless task ever confronted
any team leader. It's 1000 to l
against Chance winning a pennant
and it's 100 to | that his team will
do anything beyond the pathetic: :
IL, by some seeming miracle, the
Red Sox should put on spurt' In
1928. upset the dope bucket. and
become either a menace or a. factor
in the pennant race, then Frank
Chance surely win have earned a
claim not merely as peerless
leader but as 'superman of
For he IL backed up now with q
club, owned by a man whose prime
purpose in baseball seems to be to
disposs OF every good hall player
that he gets on the auction block
This Harry FraZee. through sales
covering a period of years, has 20
completely wrecked and demoral-
ized a once great baseball club that
it is practically an untruth to refer
to it as "a big lea que outfit" =
COMES TO BOSTON.
Frank Chance slides into Boston
In 1923. possessed of a most ter
rible outlook. He goes there to
head an aggregation OF misfits and
baseball riffraff. And he goes
with the full knowledge that il he
should develop any player 10 L
point Of stardom. there Is the like.
hhood that he will wake up sotne
morning to find that the owner
has sold him to the highest bidder.
II is really too bad for Frank
Chance. who for years has nursed
the hope OF redeeming himself for
the Yankee failure and proving
his greatness as a leader, that he
should be sentenced to serve q