Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 168

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 168
Description:
Jesse Haines, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, stands holding a baseball in his glove around chest level as he looks forward. Haines has brought the ball and glove in towards his body, almost resting it against his chest.
Creator:
Mann, Leslie
Creator:
E.W. Goodrich (Tremont Temple, Boston)
Date:
1920–1925
Format:
Photographs
Location:
Springfield College Archives and Special Collections
Collection (local):
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide Collection
Subjects:
Baseball
Baseball caps
Pitchers
Haines, Jesse Joseph
St. Louis Cardinals
Pitching
Pitching--Set Position
Sportsman Park, St. Louis, Missouri
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/51
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:
Haines is demonstrating a correct resting position that many pitchers follow as he prepares to start his throw. In the image, Haines's feet are shoulder width apart and the weight from his body remains evenly balanced between both of his feet. Similar to Babe Adams in lantern slide 165, Haines appears to be in a very relaxed and comfortable set position which would allow him to throw the baseball quicker and easier. This set position is mainly used when there are runners on base as Haines would be able to throw the ball towards first base or home plate quickly and easily. It would be beneficial for Haines to throw the ball towards first base quickly if there was a runner leading off of the base. Haines also keeps the baseball hidden in this set position which is important because it hides the baseball from the runner and the batter. If the runner knew he was pitching a changeup or curveball, he would be more likely to steal since he would know that it would take the baseball longer to reach homeplate than it would if he was throwing a fastball which would reach home plate quicker. Keeping the ball hidden gives Haines a leg up on the runner and batter.
Jesse Haines was born on August 7th, 1893, in Clayton, Ohio. He pitched in the Major Leagues for the Cincinnati Reds in 1918, and spent the rest of his career in the Major Leagues pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1920-1937. Haines didn't actually enter the Major Leagues until he was 26 years old, mainly due to many injuries he faced during his first few seasons. He began his career with a couple good seasons as a member of the Cardinals, but after a lackluster season, he realized he needed to add an element to his pitching game to be successful since his fastball was losing value, and he chose to add the knuckleball. However, Haines held the ball with his knuckles, which was different from other baseball players who held the ball with their fingertips. This allowed Haines to throw the ball as hard as he wanted to, but it also caused Haines a great deal of pain, as pitching the knuckleball the way he did often made his knuckles bleed profusely. After a couple seasons, Haines also began to pitch the slow ball since his knuckleball was losing its effectiveness. Overall, Haines had a very inconsistent career. He had seasons where he pitched tremendously well and other seasons where he pitched terrible. In 1924, Haines pitched a no-hitter, but the rest of his season was miserable. Haines was able to pitch until he was 44 years old because of his short delivery, which put less stress on his arm. He won five National League pennants and three World Series titles while playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. Haines was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970. However, this decision faces wide criticism today, since Haines didn't really do anything that made him stand out as an exceptional pitcher, and his career statistics are a lot worse than many people who didn't get into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Haines was elected because his former teammate and coach Frankie Frisch was the chair and major voice of the Veterans Committee. Because of this, he convinced people to elect Haines and many of his other former teammates to the Hall of Fame, even when they probably shouldn't have been.
In many of the lantern slides regarding a proper set resting position, Leslie Mann asserts his belief that it is especially important to follow this set resting position when there are runners on base. This set position involves no wind up when throwing a baseball, which is important because it allows the pitcher to release the baseball quicker. He would have a better chance of picking a runner off base if his release was quicker. Mann notes that pitchers shouldn't always pitch from these resting positions, but should only in circumstances that are beneficial.
I used facial recognition to identify the player in slide 168 as Jesse Haines.
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 image were then combined in Photoshop to create the final image.
Lantern slide from the Leslie Mann baseball instruction course, "The Fundamentals of Baseball"
Wolf, Gregory H. "Jesse Haines." Society for American Baseball Research, [ https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/afeb716c ]. Accessed 16 Nov. 2017. ___Internet Archive___. [ http://web.archive.org/web/20171116185710/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/afeb716c ].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-168-03
168