Joe Tinker – Chicago Cubs Turkey Reds Cabinet Card

Description

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Joe Tinker

Born: July 27, 1880 Muscotah, Kansas
Died: July 27, 1948 (aged 68) Orlando, Florida
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Height: 5’9″
Weight: 175 lbs.
Position: Shortstop

Played For:

As player

Chicago Orphans / Cubs (1902–1912)
Cincinnati Reds (1913)
Chicago Chi-Feds / Whales (1914–1915)
Chicago Cubs (1916)

As manager

Cincinnati Reds (1913)
Chicago Cubs (1916)

Biography:

Tinker was born in Muscotah, Kansas. His twin sister died at a young age. When Tinker was two, his family moved to Kansas City, Kansas. There, he began to play baseball for his school’s team when he was 14 years old. He played in semi-professional baseball for Hagen’s Tailors in 1898, winning the city championship. In 1899, he played for a team based in Parsons, Kansas, until it disbanded. He then joined a team representing Coffeyville, Kansas, as a third baseman, for the remainder of the year.

Renowned for his ability to execute the hit-and-run play and deliver clutch hits in big games, Joe Tinker compiled a lifetime batting average of .266 and stole 336 bases in 13 full seasons in the majors, but he is best known for anchoring the defense of a team that many consider the greatest of the Deadball Era, if not of all-time. “It is impossible to speak of the great deeds which made the Cubs of 1906 the most formidable team in the history of the game without due mention of their peerless shortstop, Joe Tinker,” wrote F. C. Lane in Baseball Magazine. “The shadow of Hans Wagner has long obscured the deeds of the short-field men, and the great Dutchman will go down in history as the most incomparable shortstop who ever played the game. But it is hardly fair to make comparisons where Wagner is concerned. Admit that he is in a class by himself, a most obvious statement, and then state what is equally obvious, that the head of the shortstop department outside the Flying Dutchman clearly belongs to the Chicago star.”

More info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Tinker
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tinkejo01.shtml
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/bc0df648