Eddie Grant (baseball)

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Eddie Grant
New York Giants
MLB statistics
Batting average.249
Hits844
RBI277
Stolen bases153
Teams
Military career
Allegiance
Meuse-Argonne Offensive
AwardsPurple Heart

Edward Leslie Grant (May 21, 1883 – October 5, 1918),[1] was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a third baseman between 1905 and 1915. Grant became one of the few major league players who were killed in World War I.[2]

Biography

Eddie Grant as Captain during World War I

Grant was born on May 21, 1883, in Franklin, Massachusetts. After completing high school in 1901, Grant attended Dean Academy (now Dean College) in Franklin for a year before enrolling at Harvard University (earning him the nickname "Harvard Eddie").[3] While at Harvard, Grant was a member of the freshman basketball and baseball teams. He played varsity basketball for the Crimson during his sophomore year in 1903, and was set to play varsity baseball the following spring until he was declared ineligible for playing in a professional independent baseball league the previous summer.[3] He graduated from Harvard University with an undergraduate degree in 1905 and a law degree in 1909.

Grant entered the majors with the

Cleveland Naps at the very end of the 1905 season as an emergency replacement for an ailing Nap Lajoie.[3] He played in the minor leagues in 1906, but returned to the majors with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1907, and was the Phillies' starting third baseman from 1908–1910. Grant batted leadoff for the Phillies, but was known more for his fielding and base stealing than his bat. His best year was 1910, when he batted .268, drove in 67 runs, and stole 25 bases.[1]

Traded to the

New York Giants in the middle of the 1913 season, where he finished his career as a utility infielder. Grant appeared in two games of the 1913 World Series, once as a pinch runner and once as a pinch hitter.[3] He retired after the 1915 season. His lifetime batting average was .249.[1]

Perhaps because of his Harvard background, Grant refused to call for a fly ball by yelling, "I got it!" Instead, he would only say what he regarded as the more grammatically correct, "I have it!"[4]

Post-career

Grant in 1913 as a member of the New York Giants.

Upon his retirement from baseball, Grant opened a law practice in Boston.[3]

Grant was one of the first men to enlist when the United States entered

Lorraine, France.[7]

Grant was one of eight

Alex Burr‚ Harry Chapman, Larry Chappell‚ Harry Glenn‚ Newt Halliday, Ralph Sharman and Bun Troy.[8]

Legacy

On

Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey home that had been owned by a New York City police officer.[10] However, the photo shown of the supposed plaque on the Internet does not look like the missing plaque from the Polo Grounds, which has now been replicated at the San Francisco Giants current ballpark as of 2006.[citation needed
]

Grant is also memorialized with the Edward L. Grant Highway in The Bronx, New York and by Grant Field at Dean College.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Eddie Grant Career statistics". baseball-reference.com. Retrieved November 20, 2007.
  2. ^ a b c "The Great War Society: This Months Great Veteran". worldwar1.com. Retrieved November 20, 2007.
  3. ^
    ISBN 1-57488-860-9
    .
  4. ^ "The Baseball Reliquary - EddieGrantPlaque". Archived from the original on September 6, 2014. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  5. ^ "Captain 'Eddie' Grant Killed In France. Ex-Third Baseman of the Giants Slain in Attempt to Rescue 'Lost Battalion'". Associated Press in The New York Times. October 22, 1918. Retrieved July 24, 2009. Captain Edward Grant, former third baseman of the New York National League Club, and attached...
  6. ISBN 978-0-06-088937-1
  7. ^ The Washington Post
  8. ^ "World War I Deaths". Baseball's Greatest Sacrifice. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
  9. ^ Associated Press. "Landis Helps Dedicate Memorial to Eddie Grant". The Gazette Times. May 31, 1921. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  10. ^ "Baseballogy 101". baseballreliquary.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved November 20, 2007.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eddie Grant.
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