October 5, 1918: Eddie Grant Is Killed In Action

October 5, 1918: One of the last men you would have expected to die in one of America's wars does so -- and, for years, his legacy was lost.

Edward Leslie Grant was born on May 21, 1883, outside Boston in Franklin, Massachusetts. He went to Harvard University, where he played baseball and basketball. He got his undergraduate degree there in 1905, and his law degree there in 1909.

A 3rd baseman, he had debuted in baseball's major leagues in 1905, with the Cleveland Naps. The team was named after their star 2nd baseman and manager, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie. They would be renamed the Cleveland Indians in 1915, and the Cleveland Guardians in 2022.

He played only 2 games that season, and spent the 1906 season in the minor leagues. In 1907, he got back to the majors to stay, with the Philadelphia Phillies. As most players who had gone to college had their college's name as their nickname, he became known as "Harvard Eddie." He amplified this by refusing to call for a fly ball by saying the traditional, "I got it!" Instead, he said it with grammatical correctness: "I have it!"

He remained with the Phils through 1910. He played for the Cincinnati Reds in 1911, 1912 and 1913, then was traded to the New York Giants, allowing him to play in the 1933 World Series, his only postseason appearance. He remained with the Giants through 1915. He batted .249 for his career, with 5 home runs, 277 RBIs, and 153 stolen bases.

He went to Boston, and set up a law practice. But when America declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, he was among the earliest men to enlist in the U.S. Army. He rose to the rank of Captain. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive that began on September 26, 1918, all of his superior officers in the 77th Division were killed or wounded.

On October 2, 4 battalions of the 77th's 154th Infantry Brigade attacked a Germany line. Contact with them was lost, and Grant was sent to command a unit to look for what became known as "The Lost Battalion."

On October 5, while on search, Grant's unit faced a German attack. A shell landed near him, exploding, and killed him. He was 35 years old.

It took until October 8 to find the Lost Battalion. Out of over 500 men, only 194 of them were found alive. The rest were killed, missing, or captured.

Grant's story was over. But the story of his commemoration is even more interesting. On Memorial Day, May 30, 1921, a monument to Grant was placed in center field of his former home ballpark, the Giants' Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan. This was the 1st time something like this had been done in baseball, and preceded the Miller Huggins Monument, the beginning of what became the Yankees' Monument Park, by 11 years. Also in The Bronx, a section of University Avenue was named the Edward L. Grant Highway.

The monument would later be joined on the wall of the center field clubhouse by plaques in memory of Giants legends John McGraw, Christy Mathewson and Ross Youngs; football Giants Al Blozis and Jack Lummus, both of whom were killed in World War II; and Jimmy Walker, New York's raffish, corrupt 1920s Mayor who was a big sports fan and a Giants supporter.

After the baseball Giants' last game there in 1957, the plaque was pried from the monument, to keep it from falling in the hands of souvenir hunters. When the Mets debuted at the Polo Grounds in 1962, the marble slab was still in center field, but the plaque was long gone. Despite a claim by a former New York cop that he had it in his house in Ho-Ho-Kus, Bergen County, New Jersey, the real thing has never been found.

The Giants, who hadn't won a World Series since moving to San Francisco, dedicated a replacement plaque in 2006, at what is now named Oracle Park. They have since won 3 World Series, thus ending what some called "The Curse of Captain Eddie." As for the whereabouts of the other 6 Polo Grounds plaques, your guess is as good as mine.

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October 5, 1918 was a Saturday. The War Department had ordered that the baseball season end a month early, in September, and that all players obey the "work or fight order": Enlist, or get a job in an industry essential to the war effort, or get an otherwise necessary job (like police or firemen), or be subject to the military draft. Hockey season hadn't started yet. Professional basketball barely existed.

And even college football was affected by the manpower drain of the war. That day, the following schools played military teams: The University of California, Kansas State University, Rice University, and Texas Christian University (TCU). The University of Minnesota played a team of their school's alumni to a 0-0 tie, at Northrop Field in Minneapolis.

These intercollegiate football games were played that day:

* Georgia Tech beat Clemson, 28-0 at Grant Field in Atlanta.

* Arkansas played the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, winning 6-0 at The Hill in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Based in Rolla, and now known as the Missouri University of Science and Technology -- usually called "Missouri S&T" rather than "Missouri Tech" -- they now play sports in NCAA Division II.

* Ohio State beat Ohio Wesleyan, 41-0 at Ohio Field in Columbus. Ohio Wesleyan, based in Delaware, Ohio, now compete in NCAA Division III.

* Michigan beat Case School of Applied Science, 33-0 at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1967, Case merged with its fellow Cleveland school, Western Reserve University, to become Case Western Reserve University. They now compete in NCAA Division III.

* Michigan Agricultural College beat Albion College, 21-6 at College Field in East Lansing, Michigan. Michigan Agricultural became Michigan State College in 1925, and Michigan State University in 1955. Albion, based in the Michigan city of the same name, now competes in NCAA Division III.

* In what would become a notable rivalry, more so in basketball than in football, Kentucky beat Indiana, 24-7 at Jordan Field in Bloomington, Indiana.

* And Iowa beat Nebraska, 12-0 at Nebraska Field in Lincoln. This neighboring-States game was a regular feature on the college football schedule from 1891 to 1946. But Nebraska was a member of the Big Eight Conference (later the Big Twelve), and Iowa was a member of the Big Ten Conference, so from 1947 to 1998, they only played each other from 1979 to 1982. The rivalry was restarted in 1999, and was boosted by Nebraska's entry into the Big Ten in 2011.