On September 15, 1902, Chicago Cubs shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers (the “E” is long), and first baseman Frank Chance combined to turn a double play against the Cincinnati Reds. It was the first twin-killing for the trio of infielders, who would proceed to form the most celebrated double-play combination in baseball history.

Anchored by the fielding of Tinker, Evers and Chance, and with Chance acting as player-manager, the Cubs won 116 games in 1906 (a record tied by the 2001 Seattle Mariners) and captured four National League pennants between 1906 and 1910. They won the World Series in 1907 and 1908, marking the last time the Cubs have worn that coveted crown.

The play of the Cubs’ infield inspired Franklin Pierce Adams, a columnist for the New York Times and fan of the rival New York Giants, to pen “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon,” a short verse that ensured Tinker, Evers and Chance baseball immortality: “These are the saddest of possible words/Tinker to Evers to Chance/A trio of bear Cubs and fleeter than birds/Tinker to Evers to 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.” Adams wrote the poem in 1910, the last year that Tinker, Evers and Chance played together.

PostScript: In spite of their on-field cohesiveness, Tinker and Evers battled often; following a fight in 1905, they stopped speaking to each other entirely. Forever associated with each other, the three glovemen were inducted together in 1946 into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

When Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier met in the Philippine Coliseum near Manila on October 1, 1975, to box for the world heavyweight championship, they already shared a rancorous history. In their first bout, on March 8, 1971, Frazier, the undefeated champion, won a unanimous decision over the previously unbeaten Ali, who had returned to the ring following a ban for a draft evasion conviction (later reversed). In their rematch, on January 28, 1974, Ali scored a decision over Frazier, who had lost the belt to George Foreman the previous year.

The rubber match, dubbed the “Thrilla in Manila” by Ali, ranks among the all-time great bouts. Ali would enter the fight as the reigning champion, having defeated Foreman. Before the match, the two warriors sparred verbally, trading taunts. What occurred in Manila, however, would lead them to mutual respect.

Quick and skilled, Ali captured the fight’s early rounds, striking Frazier with sharp blows. In the middle rounds, however, the powerful Frazier pummeled the champion; Frazier later said, “I hit him with punches that’d bring down the walls of a city.” Ali withstood the fury and rained blows on Frazier in the later rounds. Frazier’s eyes swelled nearly shut, and his trainer threw in the towel before the final round.

PostScript: Described as an “epic in brutality,” the battle exacted its toll. Frazier retired the next year. Ali, who called the fight the “closest thing to dying that I know of,” was diagnosed in 1984 with a syndrome resembling Parkinson’s disease, likely the result of repeated blows to his head.

When 65-year-old sportsman August Belmont II, son of the founder of Belmont Park, volunteered to fight in World War I in 1917, his young wife named their new colt “My Man O’ War” in honor of her husband’s patriotism. Still at war, Belmont sold the chestnut-colored horse to textile magnate Samuel Riddle the next year. Man O’ War galvanized the slumping sport of horse racing and became a national hero.

Man O’ War won 20 of 21 races during a career that spanned 1919 and 1920. He ran with sheer dominance – winning one race by 100 lengths – even though handicapping rules required him to carry as much as 138 pounds. Nicknamed “Big Red” and described as a “living flame,” he became so valuable that Riddle turned down a blank-check offer for him. In 1999, a panel assembled by the Associated Press deemed Man O’ War the greatest horse of the twentieth century.

Intrigue followed the powerful thoroughbred. He required 24-hour security, as fans tried to pull souvenir hairs from him and he regularly received death threats. In his only loss, Big Red was caught sideways at the start and lost by a half-length to a horse appropriately named “Upset.” The starter of the race was blamed for springing the starting tape prematurely, and rumors of a fix persisted.

PostScript: After Riddle retired Man O’ War, due to his increasing handicap weight, the big horse sired nearly 400 foals (including 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral). When he died, at 30, Big Red’s burial service was broadcast nationally and included nine eulogies.

After the University of Notre Dame football team defeated Army on October 18, 1924, celebrated sportswriter Grantland Rice sought to convey the dominance of coach Knute Rockne’s talented and versatile backfield. The foursome consisted of feisty quarterback Harry Stuhldreher, halfbacks Don Miller and Jim Crowley, and fleet fullback Elmer Layden (its largest member at six feet and 162 pounds).

Rice drew upon the legendary Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who, in Biblical lore, symbolized hardships that the human race would endure before the end of the world. He proceeded to write one of the most famous passages ever to appear on a sports page: “Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden.”

By invoking one legend, Rice had launched another. After reading Rice’s article, George Strickler, a Notre Dame student publicity aide, quickly arranged for a photographer to shoot the uniformed quartet atop four horses (and shrewdly acquired for himself the rights to the photograph). The Four Horsemen lived up to their growing reputation, leading Notre Dame to an undefeated 1924 season and its first national title.

PostScript: After graduation, each of the Horsemen embarked on a coaching career; Crowley coached future gridiron legend Vince Lombardi at Fordham University. Strickler later became sports editor of the Chicago Tribune. In 1998, the depiction of the Four Horsemen was reproduced on a stamp issued by the United States Postal Service.

England’s national summer sport originated as early as the thirteenth century, though its complex rules (known as “Laws”) were not put into writing until 1744.

Cricket revolves around two “wickets,” each comprised of three upright stakes (“stumps”) upon which two sticks (“bails”) are balanced. The wickets are centered at opposite ends of a long and narrow strip of land (the “pitch”). Over the course of two innings, a pitcher (the “bowler”) tries to knock loose the bails with a ball, while a batter (the “striker”) attempts to hit the ball with a flat-fronted bat. The striker is out (“dismissed”) under a number of scenarios, such as the bowler knocking loose the bails. If the striker hits the ball into play and it is not caught, the striker and a teammate at the opposite wicket (the “nonstriker”) can try to score one or more runs by exchanging positions. The batting team’s innings (always plural) ends when 10 batsmen have been dismissed.

Cricket also is prominent in Australia (which defeated England in the first recorded international contest in 1877), New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies, India and Pakistan. “Test matches” between these national teams historically have represented the highest level of cricket competition. However, the length of Test matches – some lasting several days and featuring scores in excess of 300 runs – has sparked a movement in favor of one-day international matches.

PostScript: The United States Cricket Association was organized in 1961. Two years later, the United States played Canada, now its regular opponent, for the first time.

Writing during an unparalleled period of immigration and expansion, Walt Whitman attempted to create a form of poetry that would reflect the diversity of people and vastness of land in the United States. This new poetry also would embody America’s democratic principles. In Whitman’s view, “The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem.”

In 1855, Whitman achieved his goal with Leaves of Grass, a collection of 12 poems that symbolized the freedom of the new democracy. Considered the father of free verse in American literature, Whitman departed from the conventional poetic elements of rhyme and meter in Leaves of Grass. He also expounded upon topics thought to be taboo, declaring in his greatest poem, the then-untitled “Song of Myself,” “I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul.” Whitman expanded the collection eight times before his death in 1892.

Whitman volunteered as a nurse during the Civil War and drew upon this experience in postwar editions of Leaves of Grass. These editions contain two famous works that lament the death of Abraham Lincoln: “O Captain! My Captain!,” which gained new popularity in the movie Dead Poets Society, and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” which generally is regarded as one of the world’s greatest elegies.

PostScript: The form and content of Leaves of Grass alarmed commercial publishers, forcing Whitman to initially publish the collection at his own expense. Now considered one of the major literary works in the world, Leaves of Grass at first shocked critics and was not well received.

Walt Disney built an entertainment empire, and earned more than 700 awards (including a record 30 Academy Awards), by seizing opportunities and taking risks.

Disney was among the first to capitalize when The Jazz Singer introduced sound to movies in 1927. His seven-year-old cartoon company, which he had formed at the age of 19, had struggled. Planning to introduce a new character, Mickey Mouse, in two silent short cartoons, Disney hurried production of a third cartoon containing music and voices. Steamboat Willie, the first cartoon to use synchronized sound, became an instant, international phenomenon.

Disney next began production on the first feature-length cartoon. Although industry experts insisted that audiences would not be willing to sit through a lengthy cartoon, and claimed that human characters did not translate well to animation, Disney poured his money into Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Released in 1937, it became one of the most popular movies ever made.

Disney proceeded to embrace television, a medium that every other major movie producer either had ignored or viewed as a threat. In 1961, he introduced the first television series in color, Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. Disney finally crowned his empire with the development of his famed theme parks, Disneyland and Disney World, the latter under construction at the time of his death in 1966. The Disney amusement parks later expanded to Europe and Asia.

PostScript: Disney did none of the drawings for his major animated films. He did provide the high-pitched cartoon voice for Mickey Mouse.

After an enemy tribe captured her, a 12-year-old Shoshone Indian girl was given the name Sacagawea (“Bird Woman”) and taken to present-day North Dakota. There, she was sold to Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trader, who married her. In the fall of 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, United States Army officers exploring the uncharted northwestern territory, established a winter camp nearby. They engaged Charbonneau as an interpreter and, when the expedition resumed the following spring, allowed him to bring Sacagawea. It was her contribution that history would remember.

Traveling through thousands of miles of wilderness, and carrying her newborn son on her back, Sacagawea proved to be an invaluable resource. She showed the explorers which roots and herbs could be used for food and medicine and made buckskin clothing and moccasins. Her most important role, however, came when the expedition encountered a band of Shoshone in the Rocky Mountains in August 1805. The emotional reunion of Sacagawea and the tribal chief – her brother, Cameahwait – helped the expedition secure much-needed horses and supplies. The explorers reached the Pacific Ocean three months later.

There are conflicting reports of Sacagawea’s life following the Lewis and Clark expedition. By one account, she died of a fever in present-day South Dakota in 1812. However, a woman claiming to be Sacagawea, and possessing clear details of the expedition, lived until 1884 on the Wind River reservation in Wyoming.

PostScript: Sacagawea has had more monuments erected in her honor than any other American woman. In 2000, the United States Treasury issued a dollar coin in her commemoration.

Nellie Bly was 22 years old and already known as a daring reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World when, in 1889, Pulitzer sent her on a journey that would bring her international fame. Bly set out to surpass the globe-trotting record of Phileas Fogg, the fictional hero of the Jules Verne novel Around the World in 80 Days. Traveling by such means as ship, train, handcart and burro, Bly completed her journey in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes. The adventure captivated the public imagination, and Bly was greeted with fanfare and fireworks along the final leg from San Francisco to New York.

Only four years before, a teenager named Elizabeth Cochrane had written a letter to the Pittsburgh Dispatch in support of women’s rights. Impressed with her writing skills, the editor hired her. The budding journalist took the pseudonym “Nellie Bly” from a Stephen Foster song, reported on the exploitation of women and children in factories, and began her quick ascension to world celebrity.

Upon joining the World in 1887, Bly gained immediate acclaim for her sensational exposes. That year, she faked insanity to have herself committed to an asylum, and instigated reform with her account of cruelty toward mental patients there. The pioneering reporter also purposely was arrested as a thief in order to observe firsthand the treatment of women prisoners.

PostScript: Bly still was writing, for the New York Journal, at the time of her death in 1922. In her last major piece, Bly covered an execution at Sing Sing, and rallied an outcry against capital punishment.