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TRAGEDY FOR THE GIANTS: FRANK GRANT LOST FOR THE SEASON

By Samuel T. Kingsley, Sporting Times, April 26, 1901

New York, April 25 – What ought to have been a day of triumph for the New York Giants turned bittersweet, as victory over the Brooklyn Superbas was overshadowed by a grave misfortune to one of the club’s newest players. Frank Grant, the veteran second baseman and pioneer of the game’s new era, suffered what appears to be a season-ending injury during the Giants’ 9 to 6 win at the Polo Grounds.

The accident came in the top of the eighth inning. Brooklyn’s Jimmy Sheckard, charging down the line, collided heavily with Grant as the latter fielded a grounder and pivoted to cover the bag. Both men tumbled to the turf, but while Sheckard soon regained his feet, Grant lay prone, unmoving, as the crowd of thousands fell into an uneasy silence. Giants’ medical attendants rushed to his side, working over him for several minutes before a stretcher was summoned. The sight of the 35-year-old pioneer carried from the field brought murmurs of sympathy from even the most hardened Brooklyn supporters.

It was announced afterward that Grant had sustained a severe injury to his back, possibly a ruptured disc. The word from the hospital was uncertain but ominous. Giants manager George Davis, his expression grave, addressed reporters after the contest. “It does not look good,” Davis admitted. “There is definite spinal damage, and if it is as serious as the doctors fear, we may have lost Frank for the entire year. At his age, I pray it is not the end of his career.”

Grant, a trailblazer in his own right, had only just entered the Major League ranks this season following the lifting of the color barrier. Though his bat had been slow to warm—managing a .154 mark across his first five contests—his presence on the field carried symbolic weight, representing decades of perseverance in the face of exclusion.

The Giants, now standing at 6–2 in this young campaign, find themselves short-handed after the earlier loss of catcher Regino Garcia, also sidelined with injury. To lose Grant as well casts a pall over their promising start.

As for Frank Grant, the man who for years was heralded as among the finest ballplayers outside the major leagues, the cruel question arises: will his Major League career end almost before it began? At thirty-five, and with recovery uncertain, the answer rests as much with fate as with medicine.

The Giants may have taken a victory in the standings yesterday, but the real outcome was sobering. Baseball, in all its vigor, is still at the mercy of the human body.