Thread by @readjack

A star athlete facing an assault charge.

A local judge scared to hurt the team.

A fan's Go Fund Me for the athlete's debts.

Sounds modern? It's not. This is the true story of Cubs shortstop Joe Tinker, and his legal jam the week of the 1908 World Series.

A thread.

“These are the saddest of possible words: Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

So began Franklin P. Adams’ 1910 poem about the legendary Cubs double-play combo, started by shortstop Joe Tinker. The team dominated the first decade of the 20th century — with help from a Chicago judge.

In 2008 while researching the 1908 Cubs at Harold Washington Library, I stumbled upon the story of Joe Tinker’s assault charge against a saloon keeper’s son, and the judge who postponed his trial so that he could play in the World Series. I was floored.

The Tinker story hit me hard in part because less than two years earlier, a Cook County judge ruled that Bears d-tackle Tank Johnson could travel to Miami to play in Super Bowl XLI despite being on house arrest following an arrest Dec. 14 on gun charges and marijuana possession.

So, who was Joe Tinker? In 1902 he came to the Cubs, then called the “Orphans,” as part of a youth infusion. He was the team’s youngest starter at 21 years old and second youngest on the roster, older only than his future 2nd base mate Johnny Evers, then 20.

During his playing career, Joe Tinker became known best for four things. First, defense. He led NL shortstops in fielding four times, including 1908, and is 5th all-time in defensive WAR. He of course was immortalized in a poem about his defense.

Second, the hit-and-run. In 1995, @billjamesonline called Tinker “the best hit-and-run man of his time.”

Third, success against HOFer Christy Mathewson. In 1908, Mathewson led the NL in wins (37), ERA (1.43), WHIP among others. Tinker hit .266, but .421 against Mathewson.

And fourth, fighting. Hoo boy, did Joe Tinker like to fight. He had a longtime feud with teammate Johnny Evers which apparently started when Evers stole Tinker's taxi cab. Another time, Tinker leapt off the team bus to fight a group of heckling fans.

@billjamesonline:

Of course, Tinker would be remembered for less if he was not a key member on those brilliant Cubs teams. In 1903, the Orphans became the Cubs and began an ascent that would lead to three straight NL pennants starting in 1906. (The crosstown series vs. the White Sox!)

The Cubs lost the '06 World Series to the White Sox, but beat the Tigers in the 1907 World Series. They had their sights on a repeat in 1908 when Joe Tinker’s infamous season began: an injured left hand in a freak injury in his hotel room during spring training.

What happened to Tinker? One paper reported that he “lacerated the back of his left hand … doing some calisthenics in his room. His hand came in forcible contact with the shade on an electric lamp.” Another described it as “his tussle with the chandelier.”

No matter. Tinker led the NL in '08 with 157 games played and produced his best offensive season in five years. He was particularly clutch against the Giants, the team that took them to the limit in the NL, including a 10th inning walkoff single in May to beat New York 8-7.

In late summer, Tinker had a 32-game stretch hitting .409, through Aug. 22. Three days later, with his 3rd-place Cubs 3.5 games out of 1st, Tinker's troubled year of 1908 was underway with debts to a father and assault of the son: the Ginocchios.

On Aug. 25, 1908, Tinker was on the brink of debtor’s court. Saloon keeper and wholesale liquor dealer Charles Ginocchio was attempting to recover somewhere between $350 and $500 from Tinker for cigars and liquor, purchased when Tinker was in the saloon business.

Two weeks later, on September 9, 1908, Tinker met with Ginocchio’s son John in a saloon at Polk and Wood, where John was collecting the money for his father. John asked Tinker to join him for a drink. Tinker punched him in the face.

Joe Tinker now faced debtor’s court with the elder Ginocchio and a looming assault and battery charge with the son. Meanwhile, his Cubs were locked in a fierce pennant race with the Giants and Pirates that would come down to the final game of the season.

The NL race:

This was the year of the famous Merkle’s Boner, which happened Sept. 23, two weeks after Tinker's assault on Ginocchio. That game ended in a 1-1 tie. The hero for the Cubs? Tinker, whose one-run shot in the 5th was Chicago’s only run.

Finally, the assault charge arrived.

On Saturday Oct. 3, as the Cubs pounded the Reds in Cincinnati and were a half game out of 1st, Judge Arnold Heap of Chicago’s municipal court served a warrant for the arrest of one Joseph B. Tinker for assault and battery of John Ginocchio.

The Cubs were home Sunday the 4th, beating the Pirates with help from Tinker (2-4, run) to pull into 1st place, eliminating the Pirates and leaving the Giants alive — IF they could win their final three games and force a playoff. Tinker promised to turn himself in Monday morning.

On Monday, Oct. 5, Joe Tinker was arrested and appeared in court. According to the Passaic Daily News in NJ, Judge Heap had spent the morning speaking with Chicago Mayor Busse about the pennant race when this “Joseph B. Tinker” arrived in his court.

Folks, here we go.

A police officer brought Tinker before Judge Heap. “On a warrant, your honor, charging him with having assaulted John Ginocchio. The defendant, your honor, is Mr. Joseph B. Tinker.”

At last, Judge Heap, baseball fan, realized the identity of this “Joseph B. Tinker.”

“Bless me!” Judge Heap shouted. “Not our Joe Tinker?”

Tinker’s attorney Thomas Johnson confirmed, adding: “Our Joe, the Cubs shortstop. Think what it means if this young man is to be harassed and worried now, when within a few days he may be called to act in a crisis such as —”

Judge Heap cut him off: “Think of him so upset that he would fumble a line hit.”

“Or make a wild throw,” the police officer added.

As reported by The Morning Post in Camden, NJ, Tinker's attorney Thomas Johnson requested that Judge Heap postpone the assault trial on the grounds that his client “was very busy with base ball matters” and might be needed soon by the Cubs.

“I won’t stand in the way of Chicago winning the pennant,” Judge Heap reportedly said, and suspended the court proceedings until Oct. 22, after the conclusion of the World Series, should the Cubs reach it.

At that, one account described Tinker as smiling “scornfully.”

Seriously, look at this story.

So Joe Tinker was free... for now.

As for the Giants, they won all three games and forced a one-game playoff with the Cubs on Oct. 8. The Cubs then beat the Giants 4-2 to win the pennant, led by a key triple from Tinker off of the great Mathewson, kickstarting a 4-run Cubs 3rd.

The Cubs were back in the #WorldSeries in a rematch with Detroit. On Oct. 9, the day before Game 1, Joe Tinker made news again.

Not the human Joe Tinker. The bear Joe Tinker, who rampaged Rogers Park before CPD shot and killed him on a pier on Devon.

So, with Tinker free to play in the #WorldSeries, how did he do? Pretty damn well. In Game 1, he went 2-5 and drove in runs in each of the score-changing innings in a 10-6 Cubs win, and then opened the scoring in Game 2 with a two-run homer.

The Tigers won Game 3 8-3; Tinker went 1-3, and was hitless in Game 4 but made three key defensive plays in a 3-0 win that left the Cubs a win from the championship and Tinker close to perhaps $2,000 in World Series winnings.

Not if the Ginocchios had anything to say about it.

On the day of Game 4 of the 1908 #WorldSeries, Charles Ginocchio sued Tinker for his soon-to-be World Series share, as he tried to recover $350 from Tinker that Joe owed from his own time in the saloon business.

That’s where Cubs fans came to Joe’s aid.

On Oct. 13, the day of Game 4 and Ginocchio’s lawsuit, a Cubs fan started what amounts to a 1908 GoFundMe for Tinker.

The fan, S.O. Levinson, suggested that Cubs fans pay $1-$10 “for the purposes of paying off his oppressive debts and lightening his burden for the year 1909.”

On Oct. 14, the Cubs won the World Series with a 2-0 win. Tinker went 1-4, and made more fine defensive plays, including twice getting Ty Cobb out, in the 6th and the 8th. He went 5-19 in the series and tied for the team high with 4 RBI.

Your 1908 world champion @cubs:

Tinker’s World Series share turned out to be $1,400. Six days later, he was back in court, telling a judge that he was broke.

On Oct. 24, Tinker claimed self-defense on the Ginocchio assault charge. A judge (not Heap) let him walk. Case dismissed!

Tinker's legal troubles of 1908 came to a tidy end on Halloween, when a third judge dismissed the debtor's court case from Charles Ginocchio.

Joe Tinker was off scot-free.

How would Joe Tinker celebrate his second straight #WorldSeries championship and his two legal wins?

On the stage, of course!

On Oct. 30, Tinker announced that he would make his acting debut on Nov. 9 in the play “Brown of Harvard” in the role of “Bud Hall” AKA “Tubby.”

So that is the story of Joe Tinker and the assault charge that threatened his place in the 1908 World Series. Would the Cubs have lost without him? Hard to say. Tinker played every inning at SS in '08 other than the one game he missed. His sub that day did not play in the WS.

The Cubs won the 1908 #WorldSeries in five games, so they probably would have been okay. But Tinker’s fielding was credited as crucial throughout the series, with the Cubs winning Games 1, 4 and 5 by totals of 4 runs, 3 and 2.

On the list of athlete crimes set aside in the name of winning, Joe Tinker stiffing a saloon keeper and decking his son is not on the level of Aroldis Chapman, Ray Lewis, Patrick Kane, Ben Roethlisberger or others.

But it's an eye-opening look at how far back this trend goes.

And that's all she wrote.

Front page of the Chicago Daily Tribune, Oct. 9, 1908, celebrating the Cubs winning the pennant to advance to a third straight #WorldSeries. Editors noted that day as the anniversary of the start of the Great Chicago Fire.

@chicagotimeline @robertloerzel @jcgreenx