On September 15th, 1902, at West Side Grounds Chicago’s infield combo of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance pulled off their first double play to back up Carl Lundgren’s 6 – 3 win over the Reds. 

These are the saddest of possible words:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance..”

With the possible exception of Lawrence Thayer’s final lines of “Casey at Bat” there are no more famous lines of baseball poetry than these. First written by Franklin Pierce Adams in 1910 for New York Evening Mail, these lines became synonymous with the game.

Baseball historians and researcher also tell us that the lines are responsible for Tinker, Evers, and Chance eventually ending up in the Baseball Hall of Fame, even though by modern statistical analysis they should not all be.

That however is the power of the pen and of power of sports media.

Let’s just take a look at Johnny Evers, the second basemen in this famous trio. In 1912, Evers was a part of 71 double plays, which was the most double plays of any season in his career. In 1966, Pittsburgh Pirates great Bill Mazeroski set the record for second basemen when he took part in 161 double plays.

Writers like Bill James have pointed out that there are a lot of second basemen much more deserving to be in the Hall of Fame than Evers. Yet most of them will probably never be voted in.

Why? Because they do not have a poem.

Who says poetry doesn’t matter?