"Baseball's Sad Lexicon"
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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.”
While Tinker, Evers, and Chance were all good players, many similarly talented position players, before and since, have gone without a call from Cooperstown. The cohesiveness and adeptness they displayed as a unit ultimately led to their 1946 induction into the Hall of Fame. Their inductions required a vote of the Veterans Committee which, as a reminder, can induct baseball figures that it deems were overlooked. Some say it was Adams’ poem that immortalized their names and kept them in the public eye long after they had retired.
We might mention that the third baseman who rounded out the “Tinker to Evers to Chance” infield for five years beginning in 1906 was Harry Steinfeldt, an unexceptional fielder. He was snubbed by the Hall of Fame, maybe because his name didn’t easily lend itself to verse. Why should you care? You really shouldn’t, but the topic may come up at a cocktail party. . .
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