Editing Chicago Cubs (section)

====1902–1920: A Cubs dynasty====
[[File:1906 Chicago Cubs.jpg|thumb|left|200px|The 1906 Cubs won a record 116 of 154 games. They then won back-to-back World Series titles in 1907–08.]] In 1902, Spalding, who by this time had revamped the roster to boast what would soon be one of the best teams of the early century, sold the club to [[Jim Hart (manager)|Jim Hart]]. Referencing the youth of the team's roster, the ''Chicago Daily News'' called the franchise the Cubs in 1902; it officially took the name five years later.<ref>{{cite web|last=Bastian|first=Jordan|url=https://www.mlb.com/news/chicago-cubs-team-name-origin|title=How they came to be called the Cubs|website=[[Major League Baseball|MLB.com]]|date=December 1, 2021|accessdate=April 17, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Sparks|first=Glen|url=https://sabr.org/research/article/the-evolution-of-nicknames-for-the-north-siders/|title=The Evolution of Nicknames for the North Siders|publisher=[[Society for American Baseball Research]]|date=2019|accessdate=April 17, 2024}}</ref> During this period, which has become known as baseball's [[dead-ball era]], Cub [[infielder]]s [[Joe Tinker]], [[Johnny Evers]], and [[Frank Chance]] were made famous as a double-play combination by [[Franklin P. Adams]]' poem "[[Baseball's Sad Lexicon]]". The poem first appeared in the July 18, 1910, edition of the ''[[New York Evening Mail]]''. [[Mordecai Brown|Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown]], [[Jack Taylor (1900s pitcher)|Jack Taylor]], [[Ed Reulbach]], [[Jack Pfiester]], and [[Orval Overall]] were several key pitchers for the Cubs during this time period. With Chance acting as player-manager from 1905 to 1912, the Cubs won four pennants and two World Series titles over a five-year span. Although they fell to the "Hitless Wonders" White Sox in the [[1906 World Series]], the Cubs recorded a record 116 victories and the [[List of best MLB season records|best winning percentage]] (.763) in Major League history. With mostly the same roster, Chicago won back-to-back World Series championships in [[1907 World Series|1907]] and [[1908 World Series|1908]], becoming the first Major League club to play three times in the Fall Classic and the first to win it twice. However, the Cubs would not win another World Series until [[2016 World Series|2016]]; this remains the longest championship drought in North American professional sports.

[[File:1913 Chicago Cubs.jpg|thumb|right|{{center|1913 Chicago Cubs}}]]
The next season, veteran catcher [[Johnny Kling]] left the team to become a professional [[pocket billiards]] player. Some historians think Kling's absence was significant enough to prevent the Cubs from also winning a third straight title in 1909, as they finished 6 games out of first place.<ref>{{cite book |title = Three Finger |first1 = Cindy |last1 = Thomson |first2 = Scott |last2 = Brown |date = January 2006 |publisher = University of Nebraska Press |isbn = 0-8032-4448-7 |pages = 88–89 }}</ref> When Kling returned the next year, the Cubs won the [[Pennant (sports)|pennant]] again, but lost to the Philadelphia Athletics in the [[1910 World Series]].

In 1914, advertising executive [[Albert Lasker]] obtained a large block of the club's shares and before the 1916 season assumed majority ownership of the franchise. Lasker brought in a wealthy partner, [[Charles Weeghman]], the proprietor of a popular chain of lunch counters who had previously owned the [[Chicago Whales]] of the short-lived [[Federal League]]. As principal owners, the pair moved the club from the West Side Grounds to the much newer [[Weeghman Park]], which had been constructed for the Whales only two years earlier, where they remain to this day. The Cubs responded by winning a pennant in the war-shortened season of 1918, where they played a part in [[Curse of the Bambino|another team's curse]]: the [[Boston Red Sox]] defeated [[Grover Cleveland Alexander]]'s Cubs four games to two in the [[1918 World Series]], Boston's last Series championship until 2004.

Beginning in 1916, [[William Wrigley, Jr.|Bill Wrigley]] of chewing-gum fame acquired an increasing quantity of stock in the Cubs and by 1921, he was the majority owner.<ref name=Amdur/> Meanwhile, [[William Veeck, Sr.|Bill Veeck, Sr.]] began his tenure as team president in 1919. Veeck would hold that post throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s. The management team of Wrigley and Veeck came to be known as the "Double-Bills".<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Nelson|editor-first=Murray R.|title=American Sports: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas|volume=1|page=248|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury USA]]|date=2013|isbn=978-0313397530}}</ref>