• EveryCubEver

    Every Cub Ever (A)

    By Rick Kaempfer
    Jan 14th, 2015
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    Every Cub Ever….extra entries beginning with the letter A…

    ~Franklin P. Adams 1881 (Cubs hater/immortalizer)
    He wrote the most famous poem ever written about the Cubs, “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon”, and it was so memorable it probably got Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance elected into the Hall of Fame. The poem went as follows…

    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 weighty with nothing but trouble:
    “Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

    He wrote it in 1910, and it was published in the New York Evening Mail. Adams was, of course, a Giants fan. And Giants fans had seen just about enough of Tinker, Evers and Chance. After all, the Cubs had won four of the previous five pennants–and each time the Giants were their biggest rival. 1910 also marked the end of the Tinker to Evers to Chance era of dominance. They played their final game together early in the 1912 season. Adams got the last laugh. He may have immortalized the Cubs double play combination, but in the next fourteen years the Giants were in the World Series seven times. Adams was immortalized himself as a regular at Dorothy Parker’s Algonquin Round Table.

    ~Jonathan Alter 1957 (Cubs fan 1957-present)
    Alter was a Cubs fan long before he became well known as a columnist and senior editor for Newsweek Magazine. He grew up in Chicago, only six blocks away from the ballpark, and he rooted for the Cubs with all his heart. In 2008, when the Huffington Post added a Chicago page to their highly successful website, Alter helped christen it with memories of his Chicago years. He wrote: “I learned half of what I know about life from the Bleacher Bums, the motley collection of night-shift workers, drunks, layabouts, geezers and lesbians who frequented Wrigley in those years. In 1969, when the Cubs blew the pennant to the Mets, I would amble home from the ballpark in a state of depression.” He was 11 years old at the time–old enough to remember every detail vividly and young enough to really believe that they would get ’em next year. 1969 was a year that an entire generation of baby boomer Cub fans came of age. Included in this group was Scott Simon, an NPR contributor who wrote a book about his hometown sports teams called “Home and Away” in 2000. Jonathon Alter reviewed it for Washington Monthly that year. He gave the book an excellent review, but he couldn’t quite let a few of the details go unchallenged. He wrote: “Over the years,” Scott Simon writes, “I have heard about as many people claim to have sat in those six rows of bleacher seats right along Waveland Avenue as claimed to have voted for John F. Kennedy.” I was there, Scott, I swear, and you actually get some of the details wrong. There were more than six rows of “bleacher bums” (later the title of a play by Joe Mantagna) and admission was $1, not $1.75. You’re thinking of the cost of grandstand seats (See, I’m an expert on this). That extra 75 cents I saved sitting in the bleachers was enough for a cracker jack and a “frosty malt” ice cream. The bleachers also offered a better view of Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ferguson Jenkins and my other gods on earth. Alter has gone on to become a very distinguished journalist. He is often seen on television offering commentary on politics, but beneath the rumpled suit of this veteran journalist beats the heart of a lifelong Cubs fan. Just like you.

    Every Cub Ever….videos of players with the letter A.

    Grover Cleveland Alexander…(the movie)

    Moises Alou…the Bartman play

    Big George Altman…

    Richie Ashburn’s Hall of Fame speech

    Cap Anson…Hall of Famer

    Every Cub Ever…Rick’s favorite baseball card with the letter A.

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