Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 74

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 74
Description:
Ray Blades, a player for the St. Louis Cardinals, leads off of first base while Del Gainer, a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, stands on the base awaiting a possible pick off throw attempt from the pitcher.
Creator:
Mann, Leslie
Date:
1922
Format:
Photographs
Location:
Springfield College Archives and Special Collections
Collection (local):
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide Collection
Subjects:
Baseball
Baseball caps
Baseball fields
Blades, Francis Raymond
Gainer, Dellas Clinton
St. Louis Cardinals
Base Running
Leading
Sportsman Park, St. Louis, Missouri
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/75
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:
Ray Blades illustrates a proper lead off of first base. In the image, the pitcher is preparing to throw the baseball after coming to set. Blades has taken any necessary signs from his coaches and now takes his lead off of first base, keeping his eyes forward towards the pitcher. Blades does this because there is still a chance that the pitcher could attempt to pick him off of first base. The best practice for success would be a small leadoff and a quick start after the pitcher begins to throw the baseball towards home plate, because a larger lead off will concern the pitcher and could lead to him throwing the baseball back to first base. If the lead is too large, then Blades would be picked off of the base. Blades also remains on a straight line path between 1st and 2nd base, which is important because moving outward towards the outfield would make his path to second base longer, decreasing his rates of success.
Ray Blades was born August 6, 1896 in Mount Vernon, Illinois. In 1919, Blades was playing for a semipro team in Vernon, Illinois. The team played against the St. Louis Cardinals, defeating them 2-1, and after the game, the Cardinals manager decided to sign three players to the team, including Blades. In 1922, he was called up to the Cardinals team after playing in the Minor Leagues. Blades was originally a second baseman, but upon joining the Cardinals, he had to compete against Rogers Hornsby for the position. In 1922, Austin McHenry died tragically from a brain tumor, opening up a spot in the outfield, and this plus the fact that he was poor infielder who had made 137 errors over the course of three seasons in the Minor Leagues as a second baseman allowed Blades to transition to being an outfielder for the Cardinals. Blades worked very hard to improve his fielding and eventually became one of the best outfielders for the Cardinals. His success was short lived, however, as in 1926, Blades badly bruised his kneecap after getting a spike stuck in a chicken wire fence along the wall of the outfield. Blades climbed it in an attempt to catch a fly ball. An interesting note about this story is why was there a chicken wire fence located in the outfield at all, as that would seem to be an unnecessary increased cause of injury. It was eventually revealed that this incident caused Blades to tear ligaments in his knee, requiring surgery. Blades never was the same player after his surgery, losing his speed and power, and moved to the Minor Leagues in 1929. Blades was known for constantly being thrown out of games and being given fines because of his abusive language towards umpires.
Leslie Mann identifies the players in slide 74 as Gainer and Blades in a different manual titled Baseball Fundamentals on page 14. Link; https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15370coll2/id/19796
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"
Wolinsky, Russell. "Ray Blades." Society for American Baseball Research, [ https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/92a8ae6f ]. Accessed 27 Feb. 2018. ___Internet Archive___. [ http://web.archive.org/web/20180227153746/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/92a8ae6f ].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-074-03
074