Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide No. 33

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide No. 33
Description:
Leslie Mann, a baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals, stands at home plate while a catcher stands behind the plate. The catcher is wearing numerous pieces of catching equipment. There are many people in the stands behind him, and there is a man in the background wearing a suit and tie that is standing on the field.
Creator:
Mann, Leslie
Date:
1920–1925
Format:
Photographs
Location:
Springfield College Archives and Special Collections
Collection (local):
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide Collection
Subjects:
Batting
Baseball
Baseball caps
Mann, Leslie
St. Louis Cardinals
Batting Stance
Catching
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/19
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
This work is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike License (CC BY-NC-SA).
CC BY-NC-SA icon
Publisher:
Springfield College
Language:
English
Notes:
This image appears to be taken during a game for the St. Louis Cardinals. Leslie Mann, the creator of the slides, is at the plate and is preparing for a pitch to be thrown. Mann is in a proper batting stance, as his legs are spread apart with even weight distribution. His feet are at a comfortable distance apart from one another, and Mann appears relaxed, which will help him be successful. Because the catcher is standing behind home plate with his equipment on, the catcher is preparing to get into position to be ready to catch the pitcher's throw. Since the catcher is standing and isn't in his full squat position, the pitcher most likely hasn't started throwing the ball yet since the catcher does not look prepared to catch the baseball. He is waiting for the catcher to get into position and for them to make communication with signals before throwing the ball. Mann has probably just stepped into the batter’s box. Overall, this image shows the preparation a catcher, batter, and pitcher have before a pitch is thrown, and it shows the differences in how baseball was played in the 1920's compared to now. It is interesting to note that Mann isn't wearing a helmet and is only wearing a hat, yet he appears to be in a real game setting. Helmets weren't mandatory until 1956, and based on all of Mann's slides, it appears very few players, if any, bothered to wear a helmet during this time period. This shows how baseball has changed tremendously, because now, not only is it required to wear a helmet, but baseball fans are so accustomed to seeing their favorite players wear helmets that they would be shocked and confused if anyone even tried to bat without a helmet on.
Leslie Mann was born on November 18, 1892 in Lincoln, Nebraska. Mann learned sports from a young age because he had older brothers. While attending Lincoln High School, Mann became the first freshman to make varsity in three sports. Not only did he make varsity in football, baseball, and basketball, but he also was a track star. Today, he is considered the greatest athlete to ever attend Lincoln High School. After graduating, he attended the International Young Men's Association Training School, which is known as Springfield College today. His success in sports continued through college, as he played both baseball and football and made varsity as a freshman for football, becoming the first freshman to ever make varsity at Springfield College. He signed with the Boston Braves in 1912, and would continue going to school while playing baseball. However, due to fear of injury, Mann stopped playing football and became a coach. Mann's career officially started with the Boston Braves in 1913, and he was a member of the 1914 Miracle Boston Braves team that won 72 of its last 91 games and came back from last place to win the World Series. In game 3, Mann scored the game winning run for the Braves. Mann bounced around between numerous teams in the MLB, including the Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Giants. Unfortunately, Mann never really lived up to his high school and college potential, and was more of an average baseball player in the major leagues. However, Mann created these lantern slides during his time playing baseball in the major leagues. After retiring from baseball, Mann continued to coach a wide variety of sports, including basketball at Springfield College. He also wrote books about how to be a successful baseball player, including his baseball instruction course manual. Mann opened baseball schools and had very talented baseball players, like Rogers Hornsby, be instructors at the school. He also worked hard to make baseball an international sport, lobbying for an international baseball tournament that would help baseball earn a spot in the Olympics. He made a lot of progress near the end of his life in spreading baseball internationally. Overall, even though Mann wasn't the best player ever, he made numerous contributions to baseball that had a huge effect on the game and the influence of baseball on the world today.
Leslie Mann identifies the player in slide 33 as himself on page 8 of his manual titled the Fundamentals of Baseball.
Good condition;
This digital image is made from two separate digital scans; one scan of the lantern slide (reflective); one scan of the image (transparency); the two images were then combined in Photoshop to create the final image.
Lantern slide from the Leslie Mann baseball instruction course, "The Fundamentals of Baseball"
Bouchard, Maurice. "Les Mann." Society for American Baseball Research, [https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/9e10a544 ]. Accessed 19 Oct. 2017. ___Internet Archive___. [https://web.archive.org/web/20171019184429/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/9e10a544].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-033-03
033