NOTE:---for all you youngsters (under 40) that was a famous double play combination that was so great they actually made a movie around it called, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," starring Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Esther Williams (as well as a song.) Look it up, you'll enjoy it.
The following Tuesday night (we played on Tuesday and Thursdays) , after the game the same thing happened and I was stumped again. Wednesday night I was determined to finally get the right answer. After my wife and I turned in I went to my world series encyclopedia and started looking up the 3rd baseman's name for the 1906 Chicago Cubs. (Every player who ever appeared in the world series, even for just one inning, was listed there...in alphabetical order). Finally, at the end of the "S's" I came to it...HARRY STEINFELDT!! Wow, what a find. Then my mind started working overtime. When I sprung that name on the guys they'd think I made it up. After all, Harry Steinfeldt was not a household name in baseball history. I'd clean up on bets. I was so excited my poor wife woke up to see what was wrong. Stupidly I just said, "Anne, you won't believe it...HARRY STEINFELDT played 3rd base on the Tinkers to Evers to Chance infield for the 1906 Cubs." She thought I was having a bad dream and shook my arm to wake me up. When I assured her I was awake she just rolled over and went back to sleep muttering the way non-sports oriented wives did when their husbands went overboard on sportstalk. Boy, I couldn't wait until after tomorrow's game.
The next night, after the game, the trivia challenges went as usual but nobody asked THE QUESTION. When everybody started to leave I panicked and blurted out, "Hey, who played third base on the.....they all turned around and said, "Gee Jim, it's Harry Steinfeldt." I was crushed and left totally speechless. When I got home and told my wife what happened she said, "I told Vinnie's wife Sheila the story, maybe she told Vinnie and they....." I was out the door in a shot and ran next door to Vinnie's apartment taking the stairs three at a time. When I pounded on his door he said come in and, to my astonishment, the whole gang was there, with raised glasses of beer, laughing at having pulled off the joke. After a second I joined in, knowing full well THIS was a story for the ages.
At the end of the season we had a banquet and gave out trophies. I was given the first annual "Harry Steinfeldt" memorial trophy for sportsmanship and we all had another good laugh. The award endured for several years until the league closed down but the story went on forever at the sports bar we used to call home.
Several years ago I saw this poem in a column written by Joe Fitzgerald of the Boston Herald. (One of the best writers, sports or otherwise, that I've ever read.) It contained a poem that I've saved all these years. (It certainly fits right here) It's titled "Doesn't Anyone Know That I'm Here?"
Tinkers to Evers to Chance, big deal, Chicagoans lend me your ear,
Doubleday's dream was a nine man team, but doesn't anyone know that I'm here?
I've seen all the rest, Joe Tinker's the best...Johnny Evers hasn't a peer,
Frank Chance has it all, he'll sure make The Hall, but doesn't anyone know that I'm here?
My ink has been small, the lineup...that's all, I guess I'm the fourth musketeer,
I'm not crying for press, but nevertheless...doesn't anyone know that I'm here?
In a game that we'd won with my grand slam home run, while starting to bring up the rear...
A fan asked his friend, "Who's that guy on the end?" Doesn't anyone know that I'm here?
More reason to fume is the Cub's dressing room, (this may come to you all as a shocker...
Where you hang up your clothes your name usually shows....
Mines simply, the third baseman's locker;
Now here six feet under, I worry and wonder, "Did my death bring more than a yawn?"
Those who carried then knelt, heard a harried Steinfeldt ask,
"Doesn't anyone know that I'm gone?
Just one final bone, does my name grace this stone, A request that I'd made in advance;
Or does it just say, "This guy used to play.....with Tinkers and Evers and Chance.
--------------------
Sadly real sports trivia has faded out with a new generation of sportstalk shows that don't even know about "Tinkers to Evers to Chance, let alone Harry Steinfeldt. But not at this site. I'll leave you with these trivia notes guaranteed to win you some bets.....
1)---Who was the first team to appear in two consecutive world series?
2)---Who was the first team to win five world series?
3)---The Boston Red Stockings changed there name to.....?
Keep following this site for the answers and leave some of your own.....Stay tuned.....