Baseball's Sad Lexicon

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]

Franklin Pierce Adams wrote a weekly column for the New York Evening Mail, called "Always in Good Humor". Adams hoped to leave work to attend a Giants game, but his editor found that Adams had not produced enough content for his column. While traveling to the Polo Grounds to see the Giants play the Cubs, Adams wrote the poem that would become Baseball's Sad Lexicon, while reflecting on Tinker, Evers, and Chance.[7] He considered the lines to be forgettable as he wrote them, and an editor at the paper told him that he did not consider the work to be "much good".[12]

This work was first published as "That Double Play Again" in the New York Evening Mail on July 12, 1910 (not on July 10 as numerous sources state).[12][13] The Chicago Daily Tribune reprinted it as "Gotham's Woe" on July 15, 1910.[14] Three days later, on July 18, the New York Evening Mail republished it under the title by which it is best known today, "Baseball's Sad Lexicon."[15][16][17] The poem was such a hit that other sportswriters submitted additional verses.[12]

For the poem's 100th anniversary, Tim Wiles, director of research at the Baseball Hall of Fame, conducted research on the poem. He revealed that the poem was part of series of poems published in the New York Evening Mail and the Chicago Tribune. During the research process, combing the archives in the New York Public Library and the Center for Research Libraries, they uncovered 29 poems, 15 of which detail a specific play or game that had occurred during the 1910 season, with "Baseball's Sad Lexicon" the first poem published.[12]

The phrase "Tinker to Evers to Chance," and variations using other names, have been colloquially used to characterize high-caliber teamwork. Examples include:

• The song "O'Brien to Ryan to Goldberg" in the 1949 musical film Take Me Out to the Ball Game[31]
• In a 1966 episode of Hogan's Heroes titled "The Safecracker Suite", after Corporal Newkirk bypasses Colonel Klink to toss Colonel Hogan an envelope containing secret plans, Hogan remarks to Klink, "Tinker to Evers to Chance is the play. You're only Evers, I'm Chance."
• In an episode of the 1970s TV series, The Brady Bunch, Alice, the housekeeper, refers to Greg, Peter and Bobby as "Tinker to Evers to Chance" as the boys enter the kitchen after a baseball game.
• An advertisement for The Hours, a 2003 film, praising the trio of Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore as the "acting version" of the three baseball players[12]

The poem's title has also been used to characterize any process that happens with smoothness and precision, as a near-synonym to expressions such as "like clockwork" or "a well-oiled machine." For example:

• In Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye (1953), detective Philip Marlowe goes through his mail, opens it, and tosses it into the waste bin, remarking, "Mail slot to desk to wastebasket, Tinker to Evers to Chance."[32]
• The Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward used the phrase "Tinker to Evers to Chance" in their account of the Post investigation of the Watergate scandal in their 1974 book, All the President's Men. The reference described the smooth operation of President Richard Nixon's White House staff in responding to allegations of misconduct.[33]

Tinker, Evers, and Chance

Ogden Nash, in his 1949 poem "Line-Up For Yesterday: An ABC of Baseball Immortals," referred to the trio of players in a stanza for the letter "E":[34]

E is for Evers
His jaw in advance;
Never afraid
To Tinker with Chance.

Walt Kelly, in the May 7, 1953 installment of the Pogo comic strip, depicted the character Simple J. Malarkey (a caricature of Senator Joseph McCarthy) advising a preacher that the Constitution "can't guarantee what happens after you speak up... it don't pay to tinker forever with chance, ha ha like the fella says."[35]

Musician Scott Miller, leader of the 1980s band Game Theory, chose Tinker to Evers to Chance as the ironic title of a 1990 compilation album of the band's greatest would-be hits which, despite significant critical acclaim, had struck out commercially.[36][37] Like Nash, Miller emphasized the double meaning of the names, creating a visual pun by featuring a piece from a Tinkertoy set ("tinker"), a pocket watch ("evers"), and a die ("chance") on the album cover.[38]

The poem was set to music and recorded in 2010 by Chicago singer/songwriter guitarist Chris McCaughan.[39] The song, also titled "Baseball's Sad Lexicon," appears on the album We Chase the Waves by McCaughan's solo project, Sundowner.[40]