The Chicago Cubs of 1906-1910 were the 20th century's first undisputed professional baseball dynasty. Winners of an astonishing 116 games in 1906, National League champions four times between 1906 and 1910, and World Series victors in 1907 and 1908, the Cubs featured a devastating blend of pitching, fielding and batting prowess.
Led by acclaimed infielders Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance and pitching aces Three-Finger Brown and Ed Reulbach, the Cubs ran roughshod over their chief National League adversaries the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Pirates each year during this span except 1909.
The Cubs have never been able to match this level of success in subsequent seasons: the franchise hasn't made a world series appearance since 1945 and hasn't won a series since 1908.
For baseball fans residing outside the northeastern part of the country during the first decade of the 20th century, the Chicago Cubs became without hyperbole what a later generation might call "America's team." Youthful Dick Russell was an avid Cubs "crank" as witnessed here by the sizable number of Cubs players in his collection and by correspondence from his brother Robert.
These are the saddest of all possible words-
Tinker to Evers to Chance.
Trio of Bear Cubs and fleeter than birds-
Tinker to Evers to Chance.
Thoughtlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double,
Words that are weighty and nothing but trouble-
Tinker to Evers to Chance.
-Franklin P. Adams (a NY Giants fan)