Hall of Fame Major League Baseball Player. Nicknamed "The Peerless Leader". As player-manager of the Chicago Cubs from 1905 to 1912, he guided his team to four National League championships and two World Series wins (1907 and 1908). He entered baseball lore as the third link in the famous "Tinker to Evers to Chance" infield trio. Frank Leroy Chance was born in Fresno, California, and made his Major League debut with the Cubs in 1898. In his playing prime he was considered the NL's best first baseman and had a .327 batting average. He continued to play after becoming the Cubs' manager, turning a very good team into a great one. Their record-setting 116 regular season wins in 1906 remains unmatched and from 1906 to 1910 they posted 530 victories, the best five-year record in baseball history. The Cubs' formidable double play combo of shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and Chance became the stuff of legend when New York newspaper columnist (and Giants fan) Franklin Pierce Adams wrote the poem "Baseball's Sad Lexicon" (1910) about their effectiveness. It is more popularly known by its opening refrain: "These are the saddest of possible words: 'Tinker to Evers to Chance'". For all their celebrated teamwork the three men couldn't stand each other and occasionally came to blows in the clubhouse. Chance's scrappy attitude earned him another distinction: he became the first player ejected from a World Series game, which occurred in Game Three of the 1910 Fall Classic following an argument with umpire Tom Connolly. In September 1912 Chance's contract with the Cubs was not renewed after he publicly called franchise owner Charles Murphy a "cheapskate". He managed the New York Yankees from 1913 to 1914, retired due to nagging injuries from several beanings, then returned to manage the Boston Red Sox for their 1923 season. A year later he died from tuberculosis of the brain in Los Angeles. In 1946 Chance was inducted as a player into the Baseball Hall of Fame, along with Tinker and Evers. Some believe the popularity of Adams' poem influenced the judges' decision, though Chance could just as easily have been elected as a manager.