In 1910 a distraught New York Giants sportswriter famously penned what became known as Baseball’s Sad Lexicon. When the Giants’ pennant hopes that year were vanquished by a double-play performed by the Cubs famed infield trio, Franklin Pierce Adams lamented,
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 (pennant) bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double –
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Back in those halcyon times when GDP grew by 5.7% that year and there was no Fed to take credit for the productive deeds of capitalism as work, everybody knew the difference between a double and a double play, to say nothing of a homerun; and they also knew the difference between real money and fiat credit.