During the second half of the 1913 season, the Chicago Tribune's daily sports column, "In the Wake of the News," regularly published funny, sometimes hilarious, poems that it said were written by Frank Schulte, the Cubs' colorful, hard-hitting, lefty-swinging right fielder.
The poems actually were written by Ring Lardner, who presided over "the Wake" and was destined to become one of the great humorists of the early 20th Century.
This entry appeared 108 years ago today:
..........
A PROPHECY.
By Frank M. Schulte.
It looks like old New York would win
The National league pennant,
And Philadelphia would win
The American league pennant.
And just as soon as they can get
These big league races over,
Philadelphia and New York will meet
In the world's series
In October.
..........
This was the last Schulte poem published during the regular season of 1913.
There was a 3-part poem, published Oct. 1-3, that compared the Cubs and White Sox players at each position prior to the City Series. It started:
We will begin with catchers,
Which are important guys.
The Sox have Schalk and Sullivan,
And Kuhn and Easterly.
...
The most important catcher
Of which the White Sox talk
Is not Red Kuhn, nor Easterly,
Nor Sullivan, but Schalk.
...
Well, maybe he's some catcher,
And maybe he's a bear,
Than which no other catcher
Can be unearthed nowhere.
...
But as regards our catchers
Who stand a lot of torture,
I would select one catcher,
Entitled Jimmy Archer.
...
You get the idea. I will spare you the rest.
The first Schulte poem had appeared in 1910. They stopped when Lardner was switched at midseason from covering the Cubs to covering the White Sox.
But Lardner returned to cover the Cubs again on Oct. 1, just in time to cover their pennant-clinching victory at Cincinnati. Then he remained with the team through the World Series -- during which the Schulte poems resumed.
As Lardner wrote on Oct. 2:
"Frank Marvelous Schulte has signed up to write a daily poem about his doings in the world's series, provided he still plays right field and bats sixth. He will begin practicing in a day or two."
The first poem actually appeared on 4 days later, on Oct. 2, so that is when this series of posts will resume.