Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 194

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 194
Description:
Del Gainer, a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, crosses his legs as he stands with his left foot touching the edge of first base as his right foot has moved inward towards home plate. Gainer holds his glove in front of him as he stares inward towards the catcher.
Creator:
Mann, Leslie
Creator:
Erker Bros. Optical Co., St. Louis Mo.,
Date:
1922
Format:
Photographs
Location:
Springfield College Archives and Special Collections
Collection (local):
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide Collection
Subjects:
Baseball
Baseball caps
Gainer, Dellas Clinton
St. Louis Cardinals
Fielding Stance
Fielding--First base
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/71
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:
In the image, Gainer demonstrates an improper way of fielding a baseball thrown to the left side of first base. In the image, Gainer's left foot is on the base and his right foot is forward. His body appears twisted and uncomfortable because Gainer hasn't correctly swapped his left and right foot after discovering that the baseball would be thrown to his left side. Once Gainer realized that the baseball would be thrown to his left side, he should have adjusted his feet accordingly. He could have done this by judging where the ball was fielded and how the ball was fielded, which would have given him a better understanding of where the ball would be thrown to. Gainer should still be able to catch the ball cleanly if he has judged the location of the ball correctly. However, if he realizes that the baseball will actually be thrown to his right side, making this adjustment in time is nearly impossible because of how twisted Gainer's body is. Also, if for whatever reason Gainer needed to make a quick throw to any other base after catching the baseball, this would also be very difficult because he would have to turn his body in order to get in a comfortable position before throwing the baseball. The image shows the error in form for Gainer, not an error in judgement. However, if Gainer had also made an error in judgement about the location of the baseball being thrown to him, his ability to turn his body successfully and make up for this judgement error would be way harder because of Gainer's error in form.
Dellas Clinton Gainer was born November 10, 1886 in Montrose, West Virginia. Gainer began his baseball career in 1909, playing Class D ball in the Pennsylvania-West Virginia League. From the beginning of his career, Gainer was known as being an excellent bunter, which may be why Mann chose Gainer to demonstrate many of the bunting slides he created. He played a couple games for the Detroit Tigers at the end of the 1909 season after the team had clinched the Pennant, and was sent to a Class B Central League in 1910 to be farmed out. He returned to the Tigers in 1911 and played with them through most of the 1914 season. However, his time with the Tigers was plagued by injuries, as he broke his wrist in 1911 and badly sprained his ankle in 1912. Gainer played more in 1913, but was a disappointment and missed some time due to repeated minor injuries. Gainer was traded to the Boston Red Sox in 1914, but was immediately injured. The Red Sox tried to get rid of him, but no one wanted him. He remained with the Red Sox until 1917, mainly being used as a utility backup player. However, in 1916, Gainer had his career defining moment as he drove in the game winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning in game 2 of the World Series. He was a member of the 1915 and 1916 World Series championship wins for the Red Sox. Gainer joined the navy for World War 1 in 1918, and spent most of the next 10 years playing baseball in the minor leagues, expect for in 1922 when he played for the St. Louis Cardinals. Gainer played into his 40's in these minor leagues. After retiring, Gainer became a Deputy US Marshal.
Del Gainer's name is spelt Del Gainor in some of the books Leslie Mann wrote about baseball and baseball fundamentals. It is interesting that these two different spellings both appear frequently. Also, since Gainer was only a member of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1922, the lantern slide had to of been created in 1922.
I used facial recognition to identify the player in slide 194 as Gainer.
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"
Nowlin, Bill. "Del Gainer." Society for American Baseball Research, [ https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/0b74e2be. ] Accessed 30 Jan. 2018. ___Internet Archive___. [ http://web.archive.org/web/20180130152528/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/0b74e2be ].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-194-03
194