Joe Tinker

Born in Muscotah in 1880, Joe Tinker was part of the famous Chicago Cubs double play combination immortalized in the 1910 Franklin Pierce Adams’ poem “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon”:

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.”

Tinker’s family moved from Muscotah to Kansas City when Tinker was two years old.  He played semi-pro baseball at age 18 in Kansas City.  In 1899, he played for a team in Parsons then joined a team in Coffeyville.

Tinker started his professional career in 1900 and his contract was purchased by the Chicago Cubs in 1901.  He made his debut the following season and was a member of the Cubs dynasty that won four pennants and two World Series between 1906 and 1910.

After playing one season with Cincinnati in 1913, he became one of the first stars to jump to the upstart Federal League in 1914. After leading the Chicago Whales to the pennant in 1915, he returned to the Cubs as their player-manager in 1916, his final season in MLB.

All told, he hit .268 and started 671 double plays from his shortstop position.  He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, along with Johnny Evers and Frank Chance, in 1946.

Post-playing days, Tinker was part-owner of an American Association team.  He scouted and developed a real estate form in Orlando.  He died in Orlando in 1948, aged 68.

For more, read Joe Tinker’s Society for American Baseball Research bio.