Franklin P. Adams

Franklin P. Adams was a columnist for the New York Globe. On July 10, 1908, the composition room called to tell him that his column was eight lines short. Adams, on his way to a Giant-Cub matchup at the Polo Grounds, quickly scrawled out eight lines entitled “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-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 was later an ace panelist on the radio show “Information Please.”