The LA84 Foundation offers archives of old periodicals and magazines from sports history, many of them dealing with baseball. So, in the spirit of good humor and retrospective, I’ve looked at what was being written about baseball in December 1912, and now will write what I may have written back in December 1912. In 1912 style, of course.
Tinkers-Evers-Chance No More! Tinker to Cincy, Chance doomed to skipper Highlanders
Boy, oh boy! Imagine my surprise this morning when I read the news that the Chicago trio of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and the “Peerless Leader” of Frank Chance are to be broken up! The three, who so famously pricked the Giants’ gonfalon bubble in 1910 and won the World’s Series in ’07 and ’08, will no doubt live forever in the hearts of the people of the West Side of Chicago, but now they turn their heads to other endeavors. Only Evers will remain. Tinker, now the player/manager of Cincinnati, will have to face his old base ball brothers- including Evers- next season.
The same cannot be said of the Peerless Leader. He will be managing and perhaps playing for the New York Highlanders in the American League, an unenviable task given the low interest that is given to that club- indeed, I think this may well be a ruse to make what few fans the Highlanders have be hopeful after the dreadful 50-102 record in 1912. It will likely be a fool’s errand. The Highlanders’ lone star, “Prince” Hal Chase, has long been allegedly in the pocket of the gamblers, and could be crooked himself, allegedly. They have never been able to outdo clubs like Boston, Philadelphia and the American League’s Chicago. They are likely to always be afterthoughts, no matter what Chance does.
