Day 25

Detroit today. Ginny had a couple things selected for visitation then she heard about the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA) which is supposed to be top notch for those of you who are art buffs (which I am not). So after a short visit to the Detroit Historical Museum, it was off to the DIA.

When it comes to art museums, I have a certain methodology for going through them. It is like Brownian Motion. I wander the galleries and see what catches my eye. This museum is largely full of what I call real art. It does have a couple galleries devoted to crap art. These are called modern art. I was amused at two people standing before a piece of modern art which was really not more than hastily applied globs of paint on a big surface. I picked up snippets like "strong statement", "artist's intent" and "thoughtful." I would say "was the cat injured?" "did you get that paint at Sears?" or maybe "what beer were you drinking?"

During my walk through one gallery, a grand display of vintage baseball cards was on the wall. Now that is interesting. Some of these are very valuable. I started looking and found the most famous double play combination, Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance. Today's photo is a composite of their cards on display. Here is the poem published in hte New York Evening Mail in 1910 that made them famous:

Baseball’s Sad Lexicon
That Double Play Again

BY FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS

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 weighty with nothing but trouble:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”