Joe Tinker | |
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![]() Tinker with the Chicago Cubs in 1908 | |
Shortstop / Manager | |
Born: Muscotah, Kansas, U.S. | July 27, 1880|
Died: July 27, 1948 Orlando, Florida, U.S. | (aged 68)|
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
MLB debut | |
April 17, 1902, for the Chicago Orphans | |
Last MLB appearance | |
September 22, 1916, for the Chicago Cubs | |
MLB statistics | |
Batting average | .262 |
Home runs | 31 |
Runs batted in | 782 |
Teams | |
As player
As manager | |
Career highlights and awards | |
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Member of the National | |
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Induction | 1946 |
Election method | Old-Timers Committee |
Joseph Bert Tinker (July 27, 1880 – July 27, 1948) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played from 1902 through 1916 for the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Chicago Whales of the Federal League.
Born in Muscotah, Kansas, Tinker began playing semi-professional baseball in Kansas in the late 19th century, first in Kansas City, then in Parsons. He began his professional career in 1900 in minor league baseball, initially in Denver then with Portland in the Northwestern League. He made his MLB debut with the Cubs in 1902. Tinker was a member of the Chicago Cubs dynasty that won four pennants and two World Series championships 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 Whales to the pennant in 1915, he returned to the Cubs as their player-manager in 1916, his final season in MLB.
Tinker returned to minor league baseball as a part-owner and manager for the Columbus Senators before moving to Orlando, Florida, to manage the Orlando Tigers. While in Orlando, Tinker developed a real estate firm, which thrived during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. However, the 1926 Miami hurricane and Great Depression cost Tinker most of his fortune, and he returned to professional baseball in the late 1930s.
With the Cubs, Tinker was a part of a great double-play combination with teammates Johnny Evers and Frank Chance that was immortalized as "Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance" in the poem "Baseball's Sad Lexicon". However, Evers and Tinker feuded off the field. Tinker was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946, the same year as Evers and Chance. He has also been honored by the Florida State League and the city of Orlando.