In the early years of baseball many of the playing fields were enclosed by wooden fences. Some of the youngsters who did not have the fare to purchase a ticket to the game were satisfied to just watch the game and their baseball heroes thru "open knotholes" in the fence. I can visualize one youngster crouched down "sneaking a peek" of the game and reporting what he is seeing to a couple of youngsters anxiously awaiting their turn at the knothole. One can only imagine what a thrill these children received just to get a glimpse at their "Heroes of the Diamond" in action.

I would imagine that many of these "knothole peeping" youngsters probably came from homes where money was not available for them to buy a ticket to the game. Otherwise, these baseball loving youngsters would have been in the stands rooting for their favorite teams and baseball heroes.

After watching the game and feeling all "pepped up" I can visualize the youngsters going back to their neighborhood sandlot field. In joining a game with other players at the sandlot field one youngster at the plate yells "I'm Babe Ruth". A response comes from another youngster doing the pitching saying "Well, I'm Lefty Grove and I'm going to strike you out".

Ironically, we will never know how many and who were the youngsters who were "knothole fans" that made it inside the ball park and suited up to play in "New York Yankee Pinstripes" , "Cincinnati Redlegs (Stockings) uniforms or for some other major league team and had the opportunity to play out "The Dream Of Their Life".

Major Wiley B. Channell USMC (retired) at http://www.baseballfarming.com with baseball peeping thru the knot hole. Demographics may be one thing but the love of the game is the driving force which made it our National pastime.