Joe Tinker

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Joe Tinker bigraphy, stories - American baseball player, manager

Joe Tinker : biography

July 27, 1880 – July 27, 1948

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. He began his professional career in 1900 in minor league baseball and 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.

Later life

In December 1916, Tinker became part-owner of the Columbus Senators of the American Association, with Thomas E. Wilson serving as the principal owner. The duo paid $65,000 for 75% ownership of the team. Tinker also served as the team’s manager. He allowed Grover Hartley to succeed him as manager in 1919 and chose Bill Clymer to manage the team for the 1920 season, leading Hartley to request a trade.

Tinker’s wife continued to suffer through poor health, so Tinker sold his interest in the Columbus team after the 1920 season and moved to Orlando, Florida.James, p. 212 Tinker became owner and manager of the Orlando Tigers of the Florida State League. The team became known as the "Tinker Tigers" and won the league’s championship. Tinker also scouted for the Reds.

Tinker’s wife committed suicide on Christmas Day, 1923, with a revolver during an apparent nervous breakdown. He remarried in 1926, to Mary Ross Eddington of Orlando. Jack Hendricks of the Reds served as Tinker’s best man. He married his third wife, Susanna Margaret Chabot, in 1942.

Tinker ended his involvement in professional baseball, focusing instead on his real estate ventures during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. He developed a successful real estate firm, buying and selling land in Orange County and Seminole County. He purchased the Longwood Hotel, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, in 1926. Tinker convinced Reds owner Garry Herrmann to use his stadium in Orlando for their spring training site in 1923.

Tinker made up to $250,000 in his real estate business. However, his fortunes began to change in 1926, when the stock market receded and the 1926 Miami hurricane damaged significant areas of South Florida. During the Great Depression, he was forced to liquidate most of his real estate holdings. Tinker owned a billiard parlor during the Depression. He opened one of Orlando’s first bars after the end of Prohibition. He also returned to baseball. Tinker scouted the Philadelphia Athletics’ hitters for the Cubs prior to the 1929 World Series.

During the 1930 season, Tinker returned to baseball as a coach for the Buffalo Bisons of the International League, who were managed by Clymer. Tinker became the manager of the Jersey City Skeeters of the International League after the dismissal of Nick Allen in August. The owner of the Springfield Ponies of the Eastern League attempted to convince Tinker to manage his team in 1931. Tinker assumed managerial duties of the Orlando Gulls in mid-May 1937, succeeding Nelson Leach. However, he resigned the position in July of that year, as the team was unable to pay his salary. During World War II, Tinker worked at Orlando Air Force Base as a boiler inspector.