Tinker, to Evers, to Chance - A Double Play
The Chicago Cubs won four National League pennants over the
five year span from 1906 through 1910.
One factor in their success was the play of infielders Joe Tinker (SS),
Johnny Evers (2b) and Frank Chance (1b), who turned the 5-4-3 double-play 491
times during that span. They were so
successful that the phrase, “Tinker, Evers to Chance” is still in use today as
an expression of efficient workmanship.
The phrase achieved immortality in 1910 when it was
repeated, mantra-like, in a short poem written in the middle of the 1910 season
by a New York newspaper columnist and New York Giants fan. The poem, Baseball’s Sad Lexicon, expressed
the heartbreak caused by the combination, Tinker to Evers to Chance (the Cubs
had clinched the pennant in a game against the Giants in 1908, and the Cubs
were on their way to taking another pennant away from the Giants):
These are the saddest of
possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to
Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter
than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our
gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a
double –
Words that are heavy with
nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to
Chance."
But times change; Tinker, Evers and Chance were separated
before the 1913 season. Evers was
promoted to manage the Cubs, and Tinker and Chance were traded. Tinker managed
the Reds that year and Chance managed the Yankees. Despite their long history
of success, Evers and Cubs owner Charles Murphy[i]
drew Tinker and Chance into a bitter, public feud, with allegations of mental
instability, player tampering, and simple jealousy.
In the midst of this turmoil, Chicago columnist Berton Braley put his own spin on the phrase; turning it around to express the pain of Cubs fans who had seen their last Tinker, to Evers, to Chance double play:
In the midst of this turmoil, Chicago columnist Berton Braley put his own spin on the phrase; turning it around to express the pain of Cubs fans who had seen their last Tinker, to Evers, to Chance double play:
Ballads of Past Glories
Written
for The Day Book by Berton Braley
Jeff
may come back from his slump, Nelson may manage it, too,
Corbett[ii]
recover his jump, stranger things often come true;
(Leastwise
in fiction they do), yet – it’s a sad circumstance,
Never
this play shall you view – “Tinker to Evers to Chance!”
Say,
but that team was a trump (that Cub machine that we knew)
It was
the boss of the dump, it was the mightiest crew!
Wow,
how we use to hurroo! Watching that outfit advance,
Seeing
that double put through – “Tinker to Evers to Chance!”
Murphy
was always a chump, so he has wrenched things askew;’
Someone
should hand him a bump, hand him, in fact, quite a few!
Dull is
the future in hue, gone is the glow, the romance!
This
was the bleacherites’ cue – “Tinker to Evers to Chance!
Fans,
we may rightly be blue, over the land’s vast expanse;
Busted
this trio – boo hoo! “Tinker to Evers to Chance!”
The Day
Book (Chicago, Illinois), January 4, 1913.
[ii] I
read this as a reference to past-their-prime boxers, Jim Jeffries, Battling Nelson and James J. Corbett.
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