For baseball fans, the Chicago Cubs are a rollercoaster team. From the curse of the Billy goat to that 100-year span between World Series wins, the Cubs is a team steeped in tradition and legends. One of these can be traced back to a poem written and published in 1910 that immortalizes the names of three Cubs infielders, Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance.
Chicago Cubs infielders Tinker, Evers, and Chance. (Colorizer: Mads Madsen Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zuzahin/32422609562/)
Shown here in a colorized photograph from 1913, the Cubs’ trio were the kings of the double play. Here’s how the phrase “Tinker to Evers to Chance” became part of both baseball and, surprisingly, business jargon.
Who Were Tinker, Evers, and Chance?
Joe Tinker (baseballhall.org)
On the roster for the 1910 Chicago Cubs were first baseman, Frank Chance, second basemen, Johnny Evers, and shortstop, Joe Tinker. The trio first began playing together in 1902 and learned to read each other and the play with great accuracy. In fact, they perfected the double play. Between 1906 and 1910, the Cubs recorded nearly 500 double plays and ranked third in double plays among all the National League teams.
A Winning Trio
The bulk of the double plays followed the same pattern – a hit to the shortstop who then threw it to second base and the second baseman then throwing it to first base to force both runners out. In other words, the play went Tinker to Evers to Chance. This trio of infielders led the cubs to four National League championships, winning the pennants in 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1910 and two World Series wins, in 1907 and 1908. That 1908 World Series pennant marked the last time the Cubs secured a World Series win until 2016.
A Nice Ring to It
Frank Chance (baseballhall.org)
Saying “Tinker to Evers to Chance” has a nice cadence to it. It is rather catchy. That’s what poet Franklin Pierce Adams thought as he sat in the stands watching the three infielders from the Chicago Cubs defeat his beloved New York Giants. He left the game with the announcer’s voice still ringing in his ears … “Tinker to Evers to Chance”. That night, Adams sat down and penned an eight-stanza poem about a deflated Giants fan watching his team get annihilated by Tinker, Evers, and Chance. He called his poem “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,” but it became better known as “Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
A Published Poem
Poet Franklin Pierce Adams (thefamouspeople.com)
“Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” was first published as “That Double Play Again”. It appeared in the July 12, 1910, edition of the New York Evening Mail. At that time, poetry was much more popular and baseball-themed poems were all the rage. Adams’ poem was published in newspapers and magazines across the county. The poem’s bouncy refrain – “Tinker to Evers to Chance” stuck in peoples’ minds. Soon, other sports writers were penning their own versions of “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,” inserting the names of local players in place of the Cubs’ ballplayers.
The First Stanza
The poem made Tinker, Evers, and Chance household names. (sportscollectorsdaily.com)
The first stanza of Adams’ poem nicely explains the work’s title – “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” – as well as outlined what that lexicon was. The repetition of the three players’ names makes the reader feel as though they are listening to the game themselves:
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.”
A Well-Oiled Machine
The Cubs were a winner time with Tinker, Evers, and Chance on the roster. (esnpc.blogspot.com
Tinker, Evers, and Chance were so good at the double play that, thanks in part to Adams’ poem, the phrase became synonymous with a well-executed maneuver, or a well-oiled machine that completes its task with both efficiency and ruthlessness. It is a metaphor for teamwork that is commonly used in the business world as well as on the baseball field.
The Rest of the Story
Tinker, Evers, and Chance were not best buds off the field. (dickperez.com)
As you can imagine, Tinker, Evers, and Chance enjoyed a bit of notoriety after the poem was published. In fact, some people credit “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” with the trio’s election into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946. With such efficiency at the ballpark, it would be easy to assume that these men were close friends. However, that was not true. Their personal relationships with each other could best be described as strained. Apparently, on September 14, 1905, Tinker and Evers even got into a fist fight. Tinker was mad because Evers had hailed a cab from their hotel to go to the baseball field, and left him behind. When he finally arrived at the field, Tinker confronted Evers and the punches flew. Despite being teammates, the two men did not speak to each other for the next 33 years. Despite their off-field differences, Tinker, Evers, and Chance were immortalized because they worked so well together on the field.
