Original glass plate negative of Joe Tinker produced by noted Chicago photographer Francis Burke. The splendid action scene pictures Tinker sliding into home as the catcher moves out of his way and the umpire signals safe. According to an etching on the plate, this scene took place in a game against the Pittsburg Pirates. Given the packed grandstand and overflow crowd (fans are sitting on the field), this is most likely a game that took place at Chicago's West Side Grounds on October 4, 1908. The Cubs had one game to play and were a half game behind Pittsburgh when the Pirates traveled to Chicago that day for a makeup game. The Cubs defeated the Pirates 5-2, moving them into first place. However, the Cubs then had to watch the Giants finish out their season by winning three games in a row, which put the Giants into a tie for first. The first-place tie was made possible only because of "Merkle's Boner" two weeks earlier, which negated a Giants victory over Chicago. The Cubs defeated the Giants in a makeup of that game on October 8th, to capture their second consecutive pennant. The negative (6.25x5") has broken and is missing approximately one-inch along the right border, otherwise it displays minor flaws, mainly along the periphery, common to nearly all early 1900s glass negatives. The central image area remains free of any significant defects. The notation "Tinker Sliding" is etched along the top border, while "Cubs v. Pittsburg" is etched along the base. 

Francis P. Burke (1871-1949) was a prominent Chicago newspaper photographer whose work ranged far beyond baseball. He took thousands of images of immigrant life in Chicago and, in 1912, opened a photo studio with Henry A. Atwell (1879-1949), known as Burke & Atwell, that specialized in theatrical, magazine, and newspaper images. Sometime prior to 1929, Burke severed his partnership with Atwell and opened another studio known as Burke & Koretke. Burke had been the Cubs official photographer in the early 1900s but was later replaced by George Burke (in a story that has been told many times, and which may be apocryphal, Burke lost his job as Cubs photographer simply because a Cubs employee couldn't remember his first name and mistakenly confused him with George Burke). Nevertheless, he was still a frequent visitor to the ballpark and between the approximate years 1909 to 1916, Burke earned extra income by selling his baseball images to various Chicago-based businesses, including Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein (Cracker Jack), Max Stein, Novelty Cutlery, Crystal Pure Candy Co., Carl Joseph & Co. (tailors), Royal Tailors, and Irwin Howe's Baseball Correspondence League of America, which published a "Pitching Course." To baseball collectors, Burke’s images are ubiquitous and instantly recognizable. Despite the range and relative scarcity of his work, his baseball images are arguably among the best of the deadball era.