Watertown Hall of Famer Richard Grant made heads turn across the country
By Frank Santarpio, correspondent
Posted Sep 13, 2010 @ 07:58 AM
To simply call Richard Grant a great athlete would be doing him a terrible injustice.
In his day, the 1965 Red Raider graduate not only made heads turn around Watertown, but people all around the country got word of his supernatural-type talents.
So much so that by the time he was a senior, he had been offered more than 30 college scholarships for his amazing feats on the football field, the basketball court and especially the baseball diamond. Grant was also named to countless all-scholastic teams and won the Hoyt Thurber award.
“I played for a lot of teams, but without question, he was the best all around athlete I ever had the pleasure to play with,” said Allen Gallagher, director of the Watertown Boys and Girls Club, who was a basketball teammate of Grant’s in high school. “I mean this guy could do it all. He was even the best pool player around. Everyone at the pool hall was afraid to play him.”
Gallagher — who to this day is the only Watertown High basketball player to be offered a Division I scholarship to Boston University — loves to recall playing alongside Grant.
They were so much of a force together that a basketball publication entitled “Gentile’s Magazine” called Watertown one of the top five teams in New England.
As a forward, Grant was practically unstoppable.
“One game that really sticks out was against Newton North,” Grant said. “They figured the best way to stop me was to put me at the free-throw line. Every time I got the ball, they fouled me. The only problem with that strategy was that I went 19-for-19 at the line. The very next game another opponent did the same thing, but I hit my first 14 free throws. So I actually made 33 straight free throws in a row.”
Grant was also an exceptional football player at Watertown High. But because it seemed like everyone in the world wanted him on their baseball team, he gave up the gridiron his senior year to concentrate on baseball.
Before that, though, he got to play some quarterback for the Red Raiders and recalls one of his favorite moments as scoring the only touchdown while playing end in a 12-6 loss to Belmont in front of a packed Thanksgiving crowd.
While Grant was exceptional in sports like football and basketball, he was simply God-like in baseball. Grant remembers being as young as 5 years old playing baseball night and day.
“My house was on the right-field line at Bemis Playground,” Grant said. “All I did was play sports. My dad [Bill Grant, who was also a three-sport all scholastic, played college football at Georgia Tech and nearly played for the Detroit Tigers before the Depression hit] was a very big influence, too. He practiced playing baseball with me every chance he got.”
And boy, did practice pay off.
By the time he reached high school, Grant turned into an exceptional first baseman — with only one error in three high school seasons — and a very talented pitcher.
Watertown coach George Yankowski once said he threw so hard that his batting practice pitches even hurt. During one game in particular in 1965, Grant was especially unhittable when he had 11 strikeouts in a one-hitter against Newton North.
However as good as he was on defense, his offense was downright scary. It could be argued that Grant could hit a ball farther and harder than nearly everyone his age in the entire country.
In one of his first games ever as a Red Raider, the sophomore homered and had a couple of doubles against an outstanding Brookline team. Before long, scouts from everywhere were drooling over him.
“I remember one game my senior year where there were about 40 scouts at Victory Field just to watch me play,” Grant remembered with a laugh. “There were more scouts than fans there. They all came to see me hit, but the only problem was that I was intentionally walked all four times I came to the plate.”
Grant was so good so soon that he was asked by the head coach of the Watertown Hibernians to play in the Carling League. That league is now referred to as the Boston Intercity League, where some of the best college players and minor league prospects compete in the summer.
Grant, however, was only 15 years old when he was asked to join that team, and is still today the youngest player ever to participate in that league.
The answer to the question of if it was possible for a 15-year-old to be able to hang with players in that league was quickly answered when Grant led his team in hitting. Two years later, at the age of 17, he would lead the entire league in hitting.
“When I was 17, I also had the highest average in Legion ball and high school ball,” Grant said. “It was a fun feeling knowing I was the leading hitter in three different leagues at the same time.”
Grant was the only baseball player ever to be selected to the Hearst newspaper chain’s Sandlot All-Star Tournament squad three times. In 1963, as a member of that prestigious squad, in which only the best high school players around the country are asked to participate, Grant got to play in the very last game ever played at the Polo Grounds in New York.
“I still remember seeing all the bulldozers around that field,” Grant said. “But the thing I remember most about playing there is a triple I hit into centerfield that went 485 feet. Years later I watched the Ken Burns documentary ‘Baseball,’ where they drew a line boasting about where Babe Ruth once hit a ball. I realized at that time that my triple was actually above that line.”
As a junior in 1964, it was a no-brainer to invite Grant back again to the Hearst All-Star team, where he actually participated in the first-ever game at New York’s Shea Stadium. In a three-game stretch, Grant went 9-for-11 while also hitting a 475-foot homer in a preliminary contest that according to the New York Journal American made him “the number-one conversation piece among the galaxy of major league scouts.”
Grant was also invited back to play in the Hearst tournament in 1965,but by this time he had been gobbled up by Harwich of the Cape Cod League and played summer ball there instead. Right before playing in the Cape Cod League, Grant had decided among the many college offers to accept a full scholarship to the University of Arizona, where he would have played alongside future Hall-of-Famer Reggie Jackson.
While playing for Harwich, a Milwaukee Braves (Braves moved to Atlanta in 1966) scout named John “Honey” Russell — who was incidentally the first coach of the Boston Celtics — witnessed Grant hit a grand slam home run and had him immediately removed from the game. Russell told Grant that he was about to be drafted into the major leagues.
The 1965 draft was baseball’s first ever Major League draft, and Grant was selected 12th overall in the first round. Grant was picked well ahead of such greats as future Hall of Famers Johnny Bench and Nolan Ryan.
“Obviously being drafted was a huge thrill,” Grant said. “The first day I walked into a Braves clubhouse I had a locker between Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews — two Hall of Famers. I was also with guys like Orlanda Cepeda (also a Hall of Famer) and Joe Torre, so I was living a dream.”
The minor leagues though weren’t always fun. Grant recalled that salaries weren’t remotely close to what they are today and he had to eat a lot at McDonald’s while also taking bus rides as long as 21 hours. Grant also knew that there was no room in the Braves organization for a first baseman. With guys like Aaron and Cepeda vying for that spot, he knew he would have to play in a more unfamiliar role.
The Braves knew he had a real strong left arm, so they turned him into a pitcher. With that, he had success climbing the ladder all the way to triple A.
While making that climb playing for double A Shreveport in Louisiana, Grant still showed off his offensive power. In limited at bats as a pitcher and pinch-hitter, he totaled an astonishing 10 home runs.
Grant would fall short of his dream of playing in the majors, however. As he was right on the cusp of being called into the majors in 1972, he suffered a rotator cuff injury while playing for Triple A Mexico.
“I was simply devastated,” Grant said. “I had visions of being a major leaguer. At that time there was no orthopedic surgery or any guarantees, so I didn’t take the risk of trying to repair it. The shame of it all is the injury happened when I was one strike away from getting out of the game. They were only going to pitch me five innings. We were way ahead 8-0 with two outs and two strikes in the fifth when I threw a slider and something just popped.”
Although playing baseball was no longer a part of his future, Grant still found happiness in life. Along his journey he started his own catering business, coached the Watertown High baseball team in the mid-1980s, and started a construction company where he still works part-time today.
He has a wife of 43 years, Maureen, and two sons, David, 41, and Richard, 39. David, who lives in Ridgewood, N.J., is an executive at ESPN, while Richard lives in Waltham and is a lieutenant with the Fire Department. Both are married with children but before that they, too, carried on the Grant baseball tradition.
Dave was an MVP at Trinity College, while Richard was a key reason why his Bridgewater team went to four straight tournaments.
“Today I really love the opportunities when I can be with my family and grandchildren,” Grant said.
Grant plays golf in his spare time, and as you may guess, he is pretty good at it.
At age 63, Grant can still shoot in the 70s and it was only two years ago where he pulled what some thought was the impossible.
“I got a hole-in-one at Oakley Country Club during the Boys and Girls Club’s golf tournament,” Grant said. “Because of that, I won a Saab convertible. They have had that tournament more than 30 years, and I am the only one to get a hole-in-one. I still love to tease my good friend, Alan Gallagher, about it.”
It did not come to Gallagher’s surprise that Grant would be the first one to win that car.
“He is even a master of the practical joke,” Gallagher said. “But he really is great human being. He is a big strong guy but he is gentle as a teddy bear.”
Grant shares the same admiration for Gallagher. They met decades ago in Watertown and still have a special bond.
“He has been my lifelong friend and he is such a great person,” said Grant, an only child. “He was and always be like a brother to me.”
Grant, who has a house down the Cape but resides mostly in Marlboro, loves to look back at that special night in 1993 when he was inducted into the Watertown Hall of Fame. He still calls it one of the most memorable moments of his life.
“That night gave me a chance to thank so many people that meant so much to me and my family,” Grant said. “It’s a night I will never forget. It was a great ceremony but that’s typical Watertown. Believe me when I tell you there is nowhere else in this world where I have rather lived. It brought me so many special memories.”
And in return, Grant provided Watertown the same.
Nine questions with Richard Grant
1. Who Watertown teacher/coach influenced you the most?
A. Dick Najarian. He was my basketball coach at West Junior High
2. Who was your favorite athlete growing up?
A. Ted Williams.
3. What was your favorite Watertown nonsports memory?
A. Hanging out at Poillucci’s Pool Room on Bigelow Ave.
4. What was the last book you read?
A. “The Yankee Years” by Tom Verducci
5. What is your all-time favorite movie?
A. Dr. Zhivago.
6. What is your all-time favorite song?
A. “You Don’t Have to Be a Star” by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.
7. What is your favorite vacation spot?
A. Cape Cod. Especially Brewster.
8. What is your favorite food?
A. Eating chicken parmesan at Greg’s Restaurant on Mount Auburn Street.
9. What person would you most liked to have met?
A. Dwight D. Eisenhower.