Chicago Cubs: Tinker to Evers to Chance

by Art Ahrens

It has been a long time. Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance--that "trio of bear cubs" immortalized in poem and enshrined as a unit in Cooperstown--formed the core of a ball club that brought Chicago baseball fans backtoback World Series championships 100 years ago. And fans are still waiting for victory number three. Chicago Cubs: Tinker to Evers to Chance brings the reader back to the notsohalcyon days of spitball pitchers, insidethepark home runs, and an era when raucous fans lined the foul lines, often a little too close for comfort for the visiting ballplayers. Beginning in 1898 with the acquisition of a green Frank Chance and following the team's exploits through the 1916 season, the last for Joe Tinker in a Cubs uniform, this is the story of Wrigleyville's favorite tenants, before there was a Wrigleyville.

Genres: Baseball

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2007

Reviews

[Jay French · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

OK, now that I got that over with…
Another of the Images of America series, covering the last Series winning Cubs teams. Similar to the 2016 team, who is battling in the division championships as I write this, the 1907 and 08 teams had strong, league leading home run hitting as well as devastating starting pitching. The book actually covers from 1898, when Cap Anson left the team, until 1913. The book consists of 7 chapters covering two or three years each. Each chapter has around 4 pages of writing, then 20 to 30 pages of pictures with mostly lengthy captions. The pictures are the draw here, but I appreciated the writing – I didn’t know the stories to the level of depth it is told here. You can tell there are plenty of untold stories as well. The photos were hit or miss. Many are so distant that you can’t make out much detail, but there are some excellent shots. Some pictures go a bit far afield, showing for example Ring Lardner, who wrote a poem about the Cubs home run hitters that wasn’t as popular as “Tinker to Evers to Chance”. There is one photo, of pitcher Harry Coveleski, who played with the Phillies in 1908 and won three games against the Giants. The Giants later went on to lose a playoff to the Cubs for the pennant. It is an extreme reach to put Coveleski’s picture in this collection, and to top it off, it was a picture of him in 1915 in a Detroit uniform. I suspect Coveleski’s relatives were involved in the creation of this book

Fun in seeing how things were different in the 19 aughts, and from some pictures and descriptions, seeing how some things stay the same.

[Dan Colantuono · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars