Tinker to Evers to Chance and More!

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."

Baseball's Sad Lexicon, by Franklin Pierce Adams (F.P.A.), was published in the New York Evening Mail in the summer of 1910 and is one of the most famous baseball poems. The poem tells of the Chicago Cubs' infielders Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance and their proclivity for turning double plays against the New York Giants during the race for the pennant. Until recently the poem stood alone as a tribute to the "trio of bear cubs" but through some painstaking research Tim Wiles, the Director of Research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, discovered this one poem was part of a larger story.

In this Cover the Bases podcast, Wiles tells Joe Magennis about researching the poem in order to write an article celebrating its 100 year anniversary. Listening to the podcast you can hear the excitement in Wiles' voice as he explains the lengths he had to go to try to find the first time the poem was published and what he discovered as a result. Wiles discovered that the Chicago Tribune writers responded to the poem with their own poem! In fact, so far his research has turned up 29 poems between the two newspapers and many of them make reference to specific plays in a game. Wiles' research is continuing as he attempts to uncover all of the poems and match them up with plays. What an amazing discovery! I highly recommend listening to the podcast for more information on the original poem, F.P.A. (he was a Cub's fan!) and the research. You'll also hear some of the poems that were found!

I can't wait to read all of the poems and get a true sense of the emotions that the Cubs' and Giants' fans were feeling along the way as they were battling for the pennant. I love that their emotions are captured in verse! While we may not write poems, 100 years after the line "Tinker to Evers to Chance" was penned baseball fans still bond by talking about their team and enjoy some good "smack talk" with the opposing team. In my world this happens mostly on Twitter or Facebook but it's still capturing the same emotions (although not nearly as eloquently!). Today I can watch a game on my iphone, share the experience with others through Twitter, listen to podcasts, play fantasy baseball online, blog and share this through Facebook, and receive texts and pictures from my friend who is at a game all thanks to technology. What a different world this is from the days of F.P.A., Tinker, Evers and Chance. Despite the ever changing and fast moving world, however, hearts are still captured by baseball just as they were 100 years ago.

Katie Casey was Base ball Mad!

Do you know who Katie Casey is? If you have been to a Major League Baseball game you have probably sung her words or at least the words that Jack Norworth attributed to this fictional girl in his famous tune "Take Me Out to The Ball Game." When we sing the song now during the seventh inning stretch we skip right to the chorus and miss the context of the lyrics Norworth wrote on a subway train in 1908. The video above is a recording from 1908 featuring the entire song with the original lyrics. Although Norworth had never been to a baseball game when he wrote the song, in fact it took him 32 years to get to one, he certainly captures the love affair many of us have with the game.

Katie Casey was base ball mad.
Had the fever and had it bad;
Just to root for the home town crew,
Ev'ry sou Katie blew.
On a Saturday, her young beau
Called to see if she'd like to go,
To see a show but Miss Kate said,
"No, I'll tell you what you can do."

"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."

Katie Casey saw all the games,
Knew the players by their first names;
Told the umpire he was wrong,
All along good and strong.
When the score was just two to two,
Katie Casey knew what to do,
Just to cheer up the boys she knew,
She made the gang sing this song:

"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jack,
I don't care if I never get back,
Let me root, root, root for the home team,
If they don't win it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."

The next time you're standing for that seventh inning stretch and belting out this tune maybe you'll think of Katie Casey singing it to cheer up the boys over 100 years ago or maybe you'll think of my daughter who used to get mixed up and sing "buy me some crackers and Apple Jacks." In any case, I hope you'll think of the millions of people young and old tied together throughout the years by this one song and a love of baseball!