The Last Steal of Home at Braves Field

Braves Field home plate on display at the Sports Museum. (Courtesy of Sports Museum of New England)

 

The final theft of home plate at Braves Field did not take place during a regular-season game but instead on a cold late-March Boston day in 1953 in an empty park, shortly after the ballclub announced its shift to Milwaukee while encamped in sunny Florida.

Despite the dismal 1952 attendance figure (281,278) that prompted owner Lou Perini to move his team to the Midwest, the Braves always had a core of rabid supporters, especially among local youth. Back in days of the deep Depression, Tribe owner Judge Emil Fuchs launched the “Knot Hole Gang” to provide an inexpensive way to attract youngsters to the sparsely populated ballpark. The team supplied thin cardboard membership cards to area youth groups such as the YMCA and city recreation agencies for distribution. The card enabled its holder to enter Braves Field for the nominal price of 5 cents and sit in a designated section of the left-field pavilion near the bullpen area. In order to retain this privilege, such attendees were expected to conform with guidelines printed on the back of the card.1

With a few precious coins in their pockets to cover admission, a streetcar ride and, possibly, a ballpark snack, local lads would set out to the Wigwam to enjoy an afternoon Braves game. This marketing program was unique to the Braves; the neighboring Red Sox did not offer a comparable arrangement to youngsters. It remained a popular feature through the Boston Braves’ final season of 1952.

The announced loss of the Braves and the Knot Hole Gang program was an unexpected and harsh blow to a group of teenage friends who resided in the vicinity of Braves Field. The boys billed themselves the “Mountfort Street Gang” at a time when “gang” had a more benign connotation. The reports of the Tribe’s departure sounded a call to action to these Braves’ kid loyalists. Something had to be done to reflect and preserve their ties to a team that was abandoning its “home.”

A plan was hatched to sneak into Braves Field and remove an artifact that would forever symbolize their youthful days happily spent at the “Home of the Braves.” In a commando-like operation, the gang traversed Gaffney Street down to the adjacent Boston and Albany rail yard area and found an entry spot from outside the park’s left-field wall. A decision was made to capture and remove home plate. The compacted clay soil surrounding the treasure was additionally hardened by the past long New England winter. With only bare hands, the gang members scratched into the soil some 17 inches until the plate was liberated from the ground. The gang quickly secured their prize and departed from the diamond undetected.

Their purloined prize lay hidden for many years thereafter. It was shared among the members of the Mountfort Street Gang through adulthood, residing in cellars and attics, under beds, and in various other secretive locations until it emerged in 1988 on the occasion of a 40th-anniversary commemoration of Boston’s last National League pennant. In an event sponsored in part by the Sports Museum of New England and the Society for American Baseball Research, a former gang member turned over the beloved relic to the museum, where the historic dish now resides on display.

The Mountfort Street Gang’s pilferage ranks as the greatest “steal” of home at Braves Field since it secured an important piece of Boston’s baseball heritage that would otherwise have been lost.

BOB BRADY joined SABR in 1991 and is the current president of the Boston Braves Historical Association. As the editor of the Association’s quarterly newsletter since 1992, he’s had the privilege of memorializing the passings of the “Greatest Generation” members of the Braves Family. He owns a small piece of the Norwich, Connecticut-based Connecticut Tigers of the New York-Penn League, a Class-A short-season affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. Bob has contributed biographies and supporting pieces to a number of SABR publications as well as occasionally lending a hand in the editing process.

 

Sources

The author relied on the notes that he took at the 1948 Boston Braves Reunion Celebration on August 5-7, 1988, where the above described return of the Braves Field home plate took place, as well as on the shared memories of other Boston Braves Historical Association members who also were in attendance.

 

Notes

1 The “Knot Hole Gang Agreement of Membership” included promises not to skip school to attend a game and not travel to the Wigwam against a parent’s wishes. Members were expected to “uphold the principles of clean speech, clean sports, and clean habits.” Cardholders could not smoke cigarettes at the game or use profane language, and had to comply with all rules and regulations imposed by the ballclub.