History
Historically, the St. Louis Cardinals are recognized as sponsoring the first "Knothole Gang club". A quote, from Baseball Though a Knothole - A St. Louis History by Bill Borst, pages 38 - 39, tells the story. "W.E.Bilheimer, a St. Louis insurance man, introduced the idea of a 'Knothole Gang'. With each fifty dollars worth of stock purchased went one bleacher seat that was opened up free of charge for the city's youth." The date was the beginning of the 1917 season. This came about as part of the plans when Mrs. Helen Britton sold the Cardinal's club to a "fan syndicate from the city's prominent businessmen that formed an army of stockholders", page 38. Executive Branch Rickey developed the idea.
The knothole gangs came about naturally as professional ballparks were first being built with wooden fences. Kids without the price of a seat would find that the wooden fences surrounding the parks provided spy holes to watch the games for free. These holes were created when knots in the wood popped out. Naturally gangs of kids gathered around the knotholes.
In the late 1880s (perhaps 1889) - New Orleans Pelicans owner Abner Powell promoted the first knot hole gang when he allowed kids to watch free if they showed good behavior.
Another good example of a knothole gang was the Redbirds of Columbus, Ohio. If kids decided that they wanted to sign up they would do so and if they got good grades, they would be admitted free into any home game with the exceptions of the playoffs and All-Star games.
The Brooklyn Dodgers gave over 2 million free passes to kids during the 1940s and '50s. A photo of youngsters lying on the pavement to grab a view from under the center field gate at Ebbets Field, circa 1930s, can be seen at the following link.
http://www.ebbets-field.com/TheEarlyYears/KnotHoleGang.jpg
From 1962-65, the Houston Colt .45s called their knot-hole gang the "Six Shooter Club", a moniker which would be politically-incorrect today.
Read more about this topic: Knothole Gang
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)