Old Sport Shorts: I’ll Take A Chance #54

I’ve added Frank Chance to my baseball card collection.  A T-206 Sweet Caporal “The Standard for Years” tobacco card from  1909-1910.   This particular card was of interest to me since it was issued just after the last year that the Cubs had won the World Series in 1908.  First Baseman Frank Chance batted .421 against the Tigers in those games.  The Sweet Caporal  cigarette brand was created by the Kinney Tobacco Company.  Kinney merged in 1890 into the American Tobacco Company and continued sales in Canada until 2011.  The Frank Chance card is also part of the series that includes the “most famous collectible,” the Honus Wagner T-206 trading card, as described by the National Baseball Hall of Fame.   Wagner apparently refused to allow production of his card to continue, so only 50 to 200 of these cards were ever distributed to the public (exact number unknown).  The limited supply is what escalated its value.

Trade Cards, as they were called, were a popular form of advertising, with baseball cards making up only a small fraction of the total distribution.  The original N-series, issued in the 1880s, on Kinney Bro’s High Class Cigarettes, that included Sweet Caporal, featured cards of multiple topics:  Actresses, Animals, Military, Fish, Famous Gems of the World, Famous Running Horses, Novelties, Naval Vessels of the World, Butterflies of the World, Flags of All Nations, and Surf Beauties, among others.   Other tobacco competitors like Goodwin & Co. issued Old Judge cards, inserted them both as a “stiffener” for their cigarette packs and to boost sales.   Allen and Ginter, Buchner & Co., Mayo & Co., and Kimball produced higher quality cards.  Yum Yum tobacco, S.H. Hess, and Four Base Hits card inserts are very rare.  Most of these tobacco company insert cards are much smaller in size than modern day baseball cards.

Honus Wagner, “The Flying Dutchman,” starred for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1908, losing the National League Pennant by one game to the World Champion Cubs.  At that time, there was of course no instant replay and the fans were not confined to the stands.  In a late September controversial play that would ultimately determine the fate of both teams, the Cubs held a 2-0 lead.  The bases were loaded and Ed Abbaticchio, Wagner’s good friend and teammate was at the plate.  His hot smash down the third base line was ruled foul after hitting a fan.  Now considered an urban legend, in a court battle several months later initiated by the woman who was struck by that ball, it was conclusively established that she was standing in fair territory.  That was not the only controversy in the Cubs 1908 Championship drive.  This was the same official that ruled at the infamous “Merkle game” earlier that year that led to a “playoff” game, a Cubs 4-2 victory to end the regular season and send them to the World Series.

As a collector and a Cubs fan, I wanted cards from the most memorable players from those Championship teams, including Chance, Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, Johnny Evers, and Joe Tinker.  That’s right – I’ll take a Chance, plus a Brown, Evers, and Tinker.  It was also suggested that I take a card from Orval Overall who won the final World Series game in 1908.  Mordecai won games 1 and 4 while Orval won games 2 and 5.  Joe Tinker hit a home run off Christy Mathewson and Johnny Evers alerted umpire Hank O’Day to Merkle’s base running boner.  In the “playoff” game, Tinker hit a trip off Mathewson that started the rally that gave the Cubs the victory.  Finally, as a poet, I was most aware of the Tinkers, Evers, and Chance threesome, the Cubs double-play combination that achieved mythological status through this 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”

Franklin Pierce Adams wrote a weekly column for the New York Evening Mail, called “Always in Good Humor.”  He is credited with this poem, from the viewpoint of a Giants fan,  that even he thought never would be memorable.

History is a product of the right people being in the right place at the right time, and this team is certainly reflective of this phenomenon. Frank Chance joined the Chicago Cubs in 1898 as a reserve catcher.  Chance opposed his move to First Base and even threatened to quit following Manager Frank Selee’s shuffle of the lineup.  He eventually replaced Salee as Manager of the team in 1905 but continued playing. Joe Tinker was a third baseman in the minors but made the club as a shortstop.  Evers position at second was a result of Bobby Lowe’s injury.  The rest is poetic justice.

Were they really worthy of being legendary?  Probably not!  The double-play combination of Frank Chance, Joe Tinker, and Johnny Evers, ranked only third in the National League at that time with a total of 491 between 1906-1910.  There were also no double plays during any one of their 21 World Series games.  Plus, They were prone to many errors, considering the poor field conditions of their time.

The 2016-2017 Cubs version of Tinker, Evers, and Chance is Russell, Baez, and Rizzo.  The modern day trio has yet to solidify their everyday positions, since Kris Bryant and Ben Zobrist have such great versatility.  It’s not such a bad problem to have!  By the way, I have all their cards in my collection, as well.  Will they go back-to-back like their predecessors?  I will write them a poem if they do!