to second base to back up Bobby Lowe. Lowe suffered a knee injury late in the 1902 season, providing Evers with more playing time. Tinker, Evers, and Chance first appeared in a game together on September 13, 1902. They turned their first double play on September 15, 1902. Lowe's injury did not properly heal during the off-season, making Evers the new permanent second baseman for the Cubs in 1903. Chance succeeded Selee as manager during the 1905 season when Selee became ill. The Cubs, led by Tinker, Evers, and Chance, won the National League pennant in 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1910. In 1908 the Cubs clinched the pennant after defeating the Giants, in part due to Merkle's Boner. In the Merkle game, Tinker hit a home run off Christy Mathewson, and Evers alerted umpire Hank O'Day to Merkle's base-running gaffe. In the replay of the Merkle game, Tinker hit a triple off Mathewson that started the rally that gave the Cubs the victory, clinching the pennant. From 1906 to 1910, the Cubs turned 491 double plays, the third most in the NL during that time. According to Bill James' formula, "expected double plays", the Cubs led the NL with 50 more double plays than expected during those five seasons. From 1906 through 1910, the "Tinker, to Evers, to Chance" double play happened 54 times in 770 games played, and the trio did not collaborate on a double play during any of their 21 World Series games. In 1906, the trio committed 194 errors, though this was in part due to poor field conditions and scorers. Composition Franklin Pierce Adams wrote a weekly column for the New York Evening Mail called "Always in Good Humor". Adams hoped to leave work to attend a Giants game, but his editor found that Adams had not produced enough content for his column. While reflecting on Tinker, Evers, and Chance as he traveled to the Polo Grounds to see the Giants play the Cubs, Adams wrote the poem that would become Baseball's Sad Lexicon. He considered the lines to be forgettable as he wrote them, and an editor at the paper told him that he did not consider the work to be "much good". This work was first published as "That Double Play Again" in the New York Evening Mail on July 12, 1910 (not on July 10 as numerous sources state). The Chicago Daily