Frank Selee
1859-1909
| Wins-Losses | Winning % |
|---|
| Manager |
1299-872 | .598 |
A balding little man with a modest demeanor and a formidable mustache that gave his face a melancholy cast, Frank Selee compiled the fourth-best managerial percentage, .598, in baseball history. His Boston teams won five pennants. In a sixteen-year career he never finished lower than fifth. Twelve of his players are in the Hall of Fame, and a good case can be made for five or six others. Selee himself was posthumously inducted in 1999. His teams were expert at such maneuvers as the hit-and-run, the 3-6-3 double play, and defensive shifts and signals. Yet his most remarkable talent was recognizing not only a player's potential, but the proper position for him to play. In his three-plus years remaking the Cubs, losers since 1886, he converted, among others, catcher Frank Chance to first base, shortstop Johnny Evers to second base, and third baseman Joe Tinker to shortstop. In 1905, desperately ill with tuberculosis, he surrendered the team to Chance. Chicago won pennants in four of the next five years. Of thirteen key players on the Selee squad Chance inherited, eight still were regulars in 1910. (ADS)
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FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
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| » November 3, 1887: The directors of the Omaha club agree to pay $3,000 per month to manager Frank Selee to bring his team from Oshkosh, where they won the Northwestern League pennant in 1887. Two top stars, outfielders Tommy McCarthy and Dummy Hoy, will spend 1888 in the ML, however, and Selee's Omaha team will finish 4th in the WA race.
» May 8, 1902: Chicago again tops the Giants, winning 10-4. Cubs manager Frank Selee comments that the distance from the pitcher's mound to the plate looks short. Horace Fogel, the Giants manager, measures the distance and finds the lane is 15 inches short. New York protests and it is upheld on June 3rd. The two games are ordered replayed.
» August 1, 1905:
Cubs manager Frank Selee resigns and is replaced by Frank Chance, who is elected manager in a narrow vote among the players. Selee, suffering from tuberculosis, had not been making road trips, and Chance has been serving as road manager. Selee, who fashioned the team that will dominate the second half of the decade, retires to Colorado. The visiting Phillies overcome a 5–0 deficit to down Chicago, 7–6, in 11 innings.
» May 30, 1913:
As New York beats the Phils, John McGraw joins Fred Clarke, Cap Anson, Frank Selee, and Connie Mack as managers who have won 1,000 games.
» March 2, 1999: Orlando Cepeda, Frank Selee, Smoky Joe Williams, Nestor Chylak are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee.
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