Now that Grizzlies Stadium has a new name -- Chukchansi Park -- I guess it's time abandon my long-cherished dream for the ballpark moniker. I always thought it should be Chance Field, named for Frank Chance, the Hall of Famer and native Fresnan who played so long ago he was a member of Chicago Cubs teams that won the World Series.
Besides honoring Chance, we had an opportunity to rename Tulare Street and Van Ness near the stadium. We could have called them Tinker and Evers. Then giving directions would have been a simple matter of telling people to take "Tinker to Evers to Chance."
If you're too young to know that one, or too baseball-challenged, here's a pretty good Web site.
And here's the original source of the phrase, from a New York Giants fan and newspaper columnist named Franklin Pierce Adams, written in Frank Chance's heyday.
Baseball's Sad Lexicon
These are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double --
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Couldn't they name it Chuk-Chance-si Park, or are they insisting on the official spelling?