@Roberta,
Quote:Tinkers to Evers to Chance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball's_Sad_Lexicon
Three real players
Baseball's Sad Lexicon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baseball's Sad Lexicon by Franklin Pierce Adams
A man with brown hair wearing a grey baseball uniform with a blue collar and the word "CUBS" on his chest in front of a red background
Joe Tinker
A man with blonde hair wearing a grey baseball uniform with a blue collar and the word "CUBS" on his chest in front of a green background
Johnny Evers
A man with brown hair wearing a grey baseball uniform with a blue collar and the word "CUBS" on his chest in front of a red background
Frank Chance
The three Chicago Cubs of the poem
Original title That Double Play Again
Subject(s) Baseball
Publisher New York Evening Mail
Publication date July 12, 1910
Lines 8
Read online "Baseball's Sad Lexicon" at Wikisource
"Baseball's Sad Lexicon," also known as "Tinker to Evers to Chance" after its refrain, is a 1910 baseball poem by Franklin Pierce Adams. The eight-line poem is presented as a single, rueful stanza from the point of view of a New York Giants fan watching the Chicago Cubs infield of shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and first baseman Frank Chance complete a double play. These three players helped the Cubs win four National League championships and two World Series from 1906 to 1910.
"Baseball's Sad Lexicon" became popular across the United States among sportswriters, who wrote their own verses along the same vein. The poem only enhanced the reputations of Tinker, Evers, and Chance over the succeeding decades as the phrase became a synonymous with a feat of smooth and ruthless efficiency. It has been credited with their elections to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.
Background
Tinker, Evers, and Chance began playing together with the Cubs in September 1902, forming a double play combination that lasted through April 1912. The Cubs won the National League pennant four times from 1906 and 1910 and won back-to-back World Series championships in 1907 and 1908, a five-year span that saw them regularly defeat the arch-rival Giants en route to the pennants and World Series.[3]
Context in baseball history
Frank Chance joined the Chicago Cubs in 1898 as a reserve catcher, backing up Tim Donahue and Johnny Kling. Frank Selee, the Cubs' manager, decided that Chance would be better suited as a first baseman. Chance at first opposed the move and even threatened to quit, but ultimately obliged.[4] Joe Tinker was a third baseman in minor league baseball, but in 1902 made the Cubs as a shortstop, replacing Barry McCormick.[5] Johnny Evers made his major league debut with the Cubs on September 1 at shortstop, with Selee moving Tinker from shortstop to third base.[6] Three days later, Selee returned Tinker to shortstop and assigned Evers to second base to back up Bobby Lowe.[6]
Fans watch Merkle's Boner from Coogan's Bluff, September 23, 1908
Lowe suffered a knee injury late in the 1902 season, providing Evers with more playing time.[6] Tinker, Evers, and Chance first appeared in a game together on September 13, 1902. They turned their first double play on September 15, 1902.[7] Lowe's injury did not properly heal during the offseason, making Evers the new permanent second baseman for the Cubs in 1903.[6] Chance succeeded Selee as manager during the 1905 season when Selee became ill.[4]
The Cubs, led by Tinker, Evers, and Chance, won the National League pennant in 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1910. In 1908, the Cubs clinched the pennant after defeating the Giants in part due to Merkle's Boner. In the Merkle game, Tinker hit a home run off Christy Mathewson,[5] and Evers alerted umpire Hank O'Day to Merkle's baserunning gaffe.[6] In the replay of the Merkle game, Tinker hit a triple off Mathewson that started the rally that gave the Cubs the victory, clinching the pennant.[5][8]
From 1906 to 1910, the Cubs turned 491 double plays, the third-most in the NL during that time. According to Bill James' formula, "expected double plays", the Cubs led the NL with 50 more double plays than expected during those five seasons.[9] From 1906 through 1910, the "Tinker, to Evers, to Chance" double play happened
54 times in 770 games played, and the trio did not collaborate on a double play during any of their 21 World Series games.[10] In 1906, the trio committed 194 errors, though this was in part due to poor field conditions and scorers.[11]
Impact and legacy
The 1906 Chicago Cubs
Chance died in 1924, Evers in 1947, and Tinker in 1948. The poem was regularly used to memorialize each of the players after his death.[22][23][24]
All three players were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. Their inductions have been credited in part to the fame generated by Adams' poem.[12] Andy Coakley, a teammate with the Cubs as well as a coach for Columbia University, regarded Tinker, Evers, and Chance to be the best infield in baseball history.[25] Bill James, in his 1994 book, Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?, argued that Tinker was less accomplished than George Davis, who at the time was not a member of the Hall of Fame.[c]
The poem gave the trio "everlasting fame".[10] Evers made an appearance on Information Please, a radio show on which Adams was a panelist in 1938. Evers thanked Adams for writing the poem, which he credited for his being remembered.[12] However, many forgot Harry Steinfeldt, the third baseman who started alongside Tinker, Evers, and Chance from 1906 through 1910.[10][26] Including Steinfeldt, the Cubs infield set a record for longevity surpassed by the Los Angeles Dodgers infield of first baseman Steve Garvey, second baseman Davey Lopes, shortstop Bill Russell, and third baseman Ron Cey, who played together for eight years, from 1973 through 1981.[27]
Despite their celebrated success at turning spectacular plays in collaboration, relations between the teammates were said to have been often strained. Tinker and Evers feuded for many years.[5] On September 14, 1905, Tinker and Evers engaged in a fistfight on the field because Evers had taken a cab to the stadium and left his teammates behind in the hotel lobby. They did not speak for years following this event.[28] According to some tellings, Tinker and Evers did not speak to one another again following their fight for 33 years, until they were asked to participate in the radio broadcast of the 1938 World Series, between the Cubs and the New York Yankees. Neither Tinker nor Evers knew the other had been invited.[29][30] However, in 1929, Tinker joined Evers in signing a ten-week contract to perform a theatrical skit on baseball in different cities across the United States.[28]
