1911 T205 Gold Border Sweet Caporal #191 Joe Tinker (2002 Topps 206)

The cards in this 218-card set measure approximately 1 1/2" by 2 5/8".

The T205 set, also known as the "Gold Border" set, was issued in 1911 in packages of the following cigarette brands: American Beauty, Broadleaf, Cycle, Drum, Hassan, Honest Long Cut, Piedmont, Polar Bear, Sovereign and Sweet Caporal. All the above were products of the American Tobacco Company, and the ads for the various brands appear below the biographical section on the back of each card.

There are pose variations and there are 12 minor league cards of a more ornate design which are somewhat scarce. The gold borders of T205 cards chip easily and they are hard to find in "Mint" or even "Near Mint" condition, due to this there is a high premium on these high condition cards.

2002 Topps 206 Set details

Issued in three separate series this 526-card set featured a mix of veterans, rookies and retired greats in the general style of the classic T-206 set issued more than 90 years prior. According to press release notes, Topps purchased more than 4,000 original Tobacco cards and also randomly inserted those in packs. They created a "holder" for these smaller cards inside the standard-size cards of the Topps 206 set. Stated pack odds for these "repurchased" Tobacco cards was 1:110 for series one, 1:179 for series two and 1:101 for series three.

Context in baseball history

Tinker, Evers, and Chance began playing together with the Cubs in September 1902, forming a double play combination that lasted through April 1912. The Cubs won the National League pennant four times from 1906 to 1910 and won back-to-back World Series championships in 1907 and 1908, a five-year span that saw them regularly defeat their archrival Giants en route to the pennants and World Series.

That Double Play Again (or 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."

Author Franklin Pierce Adams

This was first published in the New York Evening Mail on July 12, 1910. The day before, the Cubs had defeated the Giants, 4–2, in Chicago, having squelched a late-inning Giants rally with a double play from shortstop Tinker to second baseman Evers to first baseman Chance. Per standard baseball positions, this play is recorded as 6-4-3 (shortstop to second baseman to first baseman).

The poem only enhanced the reputations of Tinker, Evers, and Chance over the succeeding decades as the phrase became synonymous with a feat of smooth and ruthless efficiency. It has been credited with their elections to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.