|
|
 |
|
Some historic thoughts
about the 1908 Cubs
of TheColumnists.com
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.”
Franklin P. Adams, a New York Evening Mail sportswriter, wrote those words in a poem called “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” as a forlorn fan of the New York Giants after the Chicago Cubs beat the hometown team in a replay of the famed Fred Merkle boner game in 1908 for their third straight pennant, lost out in 1909 and won again in 1910.
The Cubs, with Joe Tinker at shortstop,
Johnny Evers at second and Frank Chance at first, won the World
Series in 1908, a hundred years ago and counting.
The Chicago Cubs of 2008, first in their division in mid-August,
could celebrate the anniversary with another Series triumph.
As Boston Red Sox fans used to say until 2004, “Everybody
is entitled to a bad century.”
My grandfather, the original Maury Allen, was a young sportswriter
for The Damascus Daily Bugle. He covered the Series in
1908, the last time the Chicago Cubs won a World Series. Since
the 2008 Cubs have a chance to do that again I dug through his
old closets, found a dusty trunk and came up with these notes.
“Ahh, that Tinker to Evers to Chance bunch. They got good
gloves but they can’t hit. Real punch and Judy guys. Chance
can hit one out once in a while but the other two, they specialize
in Texas Leaguers, those little fly balls that drop just behind
the infield and just in front of the outfield. Evers has that
ferocious face, that pointed chin and those close set eyes. Real
ugly dude.
"Evers is the guy the Giants really hate. You know he was
the one on second base when the kid Merkle was on first and never
touched second after the winning hit. He came rushing in to the
umpires with that cry baby appeal that Merkle was out because
he didn’t touch second after the winning hit. Who touched
second after a winning hit in those days? The idea was to win
the game in about two hours and get down town to the Broadway
pubs. Everybody did that. This one time they made a fuss of it,
Merkle was called out--he was only 19 at the time--and that put
a label on him that he never could shake off.
"They made the Giants and the Cubs play that game over after
they ended in a tie and the Cubs won it. That got them into the
Series against the Tigers and that kid Cobb dominated the Series
with his .368 average for the Tigers. Chance had a good Series
with a .421 mark and Evers hit .350. Tinker hit his usual .263.
"Oh yeah, what about the $1,200 winning share? I don’t
know about Tinker and Evers but I’ll tell you what Chance
did with it. He bet it. He might have bet on his own team to
win--he was known for that--but maybe he bet on his own team
to lose. He was also known for that. There was no Commissioner
around in ’08 so guys got away with a lot. There were always
tales about Chance and his gambling but nobody could ever pin
it down.
"You know they put all three of these guys into the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1946 and there was a lot of fussing over that.
I was in my 80s around that time so I didn’t write much
about it but a lot of other guys did. I don’t think they
belonged but the poem by FPA--that’s what everybody around
the press box called Adams after his poem--really got them in.
"And how about the fact that Tinker and Evers didn’t
talk for 10 years? They were so jealous of each other. I guess
shortstops and second basemen don’t have to talk. All they
do is open or close their mouths at second base to signal which
of them will be covering the base on a steal. They must have
spent a lot of time doing that in the ’08 Series with that
kid Cobb. I bet neither of them wanted to cover when that guy
was coming down the line. He had those spikes up in the air all
the time. I didn’t like the way the guy played,
but you would have to say he was exciting.
He was sort of the white Jackie Robinson. I was still around when he broke in to baseball in 1947.
"You know the Cubs haven’t won another Series after that ’08 victory. I remember they came close in 1945 but they wouldn’t let a goat in the park and that became a jinx for them. I think it might be a hundred years before a jinx like that disappears. I know I won’t be around by then but maybe my little grandson, the second Maury Allen, will get into sports and explain all that.
"Tinker to Evers to Chance. Three
big phonies. My favorite Cub was always the third
baseman, Harry Steinfeldt.”
©2008 by Maury Allen.
The Maury Allen caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The baseball
card images are from Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. This
column first posted Aug. 11, 2008.
TO ACCESS MAURY ALLEN'S ARCHIVE OF COLUMNS
ON THIS SITE, CLICK HERE: ALLEN ARCHIVE
You can comment
on this column online. Please address your message to either
"The Editors" or Maury Allen. To send an email, click
here and don't forget to mention Maury's name: talkback@thecolumnists.com
|
|
|
Archives |
|
|