Cubs Insider · Jul 13, 2018
This Week in Cubs History: Tinker to Evers to Chance
In this week’s edition of This Week in Cubs History, we look at the 1910 publication of “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” that popularized the most famous double-play combo of all time.
On July 12, 1910, New York columnist Franklin P. Adams published the poem, “That Double Play Again?” (the title was changed to “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” when it was republished on July 18). The poem is written from the perspective of a New York Giants fan watching the Cubs turn a double play with shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers and first baseman Frank Chance.
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.