Frank Chance Marquee Hall of Fame 1946

He came up as a catcher, 33 games behind the plate in 1898 for a Chicago club still called the Orphans, and caught most of the next three seasons before moving to first base in 1902. He batted .296 over seventeen years, 1,274 hits in 4,299 at-bats, and stole 403 bases, leading the league in 1903 with 67.

The 1906 Cubs went 116-36, a total no team has beaten and only the 2001 Mariners have matched. Chicago won the World Series in each of the next two years. Joe Tinker and Johnny Evers played beside him for ten seasons, and the newspaper verse about their double play fixed all three names in the language.

He crowded the plate and was hit by 137 pitches, and the beanings cost him headaches and much of his hearing. He was finished as an everyday player by 1911, and managed the Yankees in 1913 and 1914, putting himself into thirteen games. The Old Timers Committee elected him in 1946; his best showing with the writers was 179 votes of 247.