The Knot Hole Gang

The foul ball came flying down through the bright lights, and every kid had their eyes fixed on that ball. The kid that caught the ball, would be a hero, not only in the bleachers, but also in school the next day.

The mass of 8 and 9 and 12 year olds would start running and jumping over the bench seats to the spot, were they thought the ball would drop.

In the early 50’s, Seattle had a professional baseball club, called the "Seattle Rainier’s" the major sponsor of this club, was the "Rainier Brewing Company".

The stadium was located on Rainier Avenue, which was 80 miles north of Mount Rainier. Portland Oregon, San Francisco, and San Diego had similar teams. These teams were farm clubs for the "Majors"

During the summer months, my father would take Larry and me to night baseball games. We would bring our baseball gloves and the "Special card", which identified us as members of the "Knot hole gang". Since we were members of this gang, our tickets to the game only cost 50 cents, and we could have any seat in the far left field bleachers.

With the remaining 50 cents from our dollar, we could purchase 5-cent candy bars, or 10-cent sodas, or even have a 25-cent hot dog,

Hundreds of baseball gloves went up, reaching out to catch the foul ball. There was a lot of shoving and knocking baseball gloves away from your face. Most of the time, the ball would fall though this mass of leather, and hit a bench or the floor then bounce, and the scramble was on. Neither Larry nor I ever caught a ball, but a couple of times; I threw my body on a ball. Being a big fat kid at the time, I was able to claim ownership.

After fact…Thanks Seattle Rainier’s for the memories.

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