1910 | New York City

A Fan’s Notes

Franklin Pierce Adams’ “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon.”

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.”

Contributor

Franklin Pierce Adams

Originally published in the New York Evening Mail as “That Double Play Again,” this poem honors the seemingly impenetrable infield defense of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance, who by 1910 had spent more than eight years as Cubs teammates, becoming in that time a legendary trio. Though the verse’s perspective was that of a dejected New York Giants fan, its Chicago-born author “took deep delight,” he later said, “in seeing my hometown boys beat the cocky New Yorkers.”