Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 May 1919 — FROM KNOTHOLE TO OWNER’S BOX SEAT GEORGE W. GRANTS RISE IN BASEBALL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FROM KNOTHOLE TO OWNER’S BOX SEAT GEORGE W. GRANTS RISE IN BASEBALL

Do you remember t lie time the Gainsboro Giants came over to play your own home-town i#ne for the county championship {(nd how you had the knothole in the ballyard fence, from which you were to witness the decisive contest, picked out several days ahead, and how you got up early on the day of the game so as to be sure another kid did not beat you to that same knothole, and how on your arrival at the park you discovered to your dismay that the groundkeeper had, carefully covered every knothole with tin, and how the fence, was unshinnable, and how you resolved then and there to some day own a ball club and let all the. Rids in free and bar the groundkeeper, even though he paid five hundred dollars for a ticket? Of course you remember. But then as the years passed you forgot your boyhood resolutions and decided to become the town’s leading lawyer or doctor? Grant Didn’t Forget. George Washington Grant, who recently purchased the Boston National league teain, was one who did not forget. Diamond destiny had marked him for its*very own. A rabid fan from boyhood, he witnessed many games through a. knot hole. George’s baseball experience started in Cincinnati, his boyhood home. He lived near the hotel where the big league? players

stopped while in tovyn. and it was his proml and exclusive privilege to ride in the bus which carried the -players to the ball park for morning practice. . In the afternoons-he sold newspapers in the vicinity of the park and between sales watched the games through ti knothole. His specialty was baseball editions.

Time passed and young Grant emigrated to New York and became one of the pioneers in the motion picture g'ame. He was enjoying a degree of prosperity which at that time came ’ in no small measure to those whd had ground-floor connections in the motion picture enterprises. He then to London, where he became a leader in the new industry. Bought Boston Braves. Though many miles of water separated him from the States his interest in baseball never waned. On two occasions he came back to the United States for the sole purpose of seeing the world series games. Mr. Grant was now rated as w millionaire, and when the opportunity presented itself he purchased the Boston club for a price said to be $500,000. His boyhood ambition realized, he now watches his own team play from the owner’s box instead of from the knothole in the unshinnable fence. And he hasn’t forgotten his resolution to let the most loyal of rooters, the knothole spectator’s, in free.

New Owner of Boston National League Team.