Mordecai Brown by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Mordecai Brown
Page 97
A Pause
Natural breaks exist. Manager Chance risked one in 1906 when he started using Mordecai Brown every second day down the stretch, not slowing up when he continued that into the World Series, though plucky Brownie survived and came back with more brilliance.
Great player, Chance had replaced Frank Selee, who had been managing the Cubs since 1902 less than half way into the 1905 season. Selee’s teams had put up good records, but after the sub .500 first always finished second or third in the league.
Chance, despite having an overwhelming lead in 1906, as a new manager, may well have been nervous about not winning with exemplary records. Up close, he’d seen Selee do it. Despite having not four, not five, but six excellent starting pitchers, he kept going to Brownie late in the year.
The Edge of the Break: Brown in September 1906
By early September of 1906, Frank Chance could feel the season tightening around him like a wire, even if he was the only one. His Cubs were a machine; fast, relentless, almost arrogant in their precision, but even machines have stress points. And the