A successful restaurateur, Grant DePorter came to worldwide prominence in 2004 when he paid US$113,824.16 for a baseball which a fan had unwittingly deflected out of the hands of a Chicago Cubs player (thus contributing to the team's defeat in the 2003 National League Championship Series), and then having the ball blown-up in a nationally televised event intended to help end the "Curse of the Billy Goat" which had afflicted the Cubs since 1945.
Major League Baseball | National Football League | National Register of Historic Places | National Hockey League | 2003 | ATP International Series | World Series | England national football team | UEFA Champions League | National Basketball Association | Premier League | National Science Foundation | National Geographic | Australian Football League | rugby league | Major League Soccer | 2003 in music | National Trust | World Series of Poker | ATP International Series Gold | National Endowment for the Arts | National Geographic Society | Argentina national football team | Star Trek: The Original Series | National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty | National Park Service | National League | League of Nations | ATP World Tour 250 series | Australian National University |