Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 14

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 14
Description:
George Burns, a left fielder for the Cincinnati Reds, stands holding a bat in his hand at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio. Bubbles Hargraves, a catcher for the Reds, stands directly behind the bat holding a glove.
Creator:
Mann, Leslie
Date:
1920–1925
Format:
Photographs
Location:
Springfield College Archives and Special Collections
Collection (local):
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide Collection
Subjects:
Baseball
Baseball caps
Burns, Joseph George
Hargrave, Eugene Franklin
Cincinnati Reds
Bunting
Bunting Stance
Catching
Catching Stance
Crosley Field, Cincinnati, Ohio
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/82
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 slide, Burns is demonstrating a fake attempt at bunting, and is instead doing his best to block the baseball for as long as possible in order to attempt to interfere with the catcher's ability to catch the baseball. The goal here is for Hargraves to not be able to catch the baseball cleanly and smoothly. Burns will try his best to move his bat away from the plate at the last second possible, giving Hargraves, the catcher, minimal time to react. Hargraves will have to judge the baseball solely with his eyes and will have to use his eyes to make his best guess about where to place his glove in order to catch the baseball. This method of fake bunting isn't as efficient as the method in Lantern Slide 64, where Burns uses his bat to actually block the catcher's eye sight. In this image, Hargraves can use his eyes to determine the location of the ball, but in 64, he is reacting much more blindly to the situation and could much more easily drop the baseball.
George Joseph Burns was born November 24, 1889 in Utica, New York. He spent most of his career playing leftfield for the New York Giants, but also played for the Cincinnati Reds and the Philadelphia Phillies at the end of his career. Burns’ name was actually popular during this time period, as two other famous people, another baseball player and comedian, shared the exact same name of George Burns with him. This may be why he is often forgot about today because of the success of the comedian. George Burns may actually be the most consistent hitter ever in the history of baseball. Burns career batting average was .287, but over 15 years, he never hit higher than .303 or lower than .272. He consistently hit around the .300 mark with little to no fluctuations throughout his 15 year career. Burns also consistently led the league in hits, runs, walks, and stolen bases. He made his debut in the Major Leagues at the end of the 1911 season for the Giants, and the manager John McGraw chose not to farm Burns out, which was a common practice during this time period. Instead, Burns remained on the team and sat on the bench, learning from McGraw. Burns became the starter for the Giants in 1913. The Giants field was known for being one of the sunniest fields, making it one of the most difficult baseball fields for a left fielder to play in. Burns adopted a special cap with blue sunglasses attached to it to deal with catching these fly balls. Burns became very successful at catching these fly balls. Burns was also known for his speed and being a very successful leadoff man. In 1914, he led the league in runs scored and stolen bases and hit .303, his career high batting average, finishing fourth in MVP voting. Along with his incredible consistency, Burns was also a very reliable player, as he played in 459 straight games from 1915-1917. Burns also has stolen home base 28 times in his career, the third most all-time. In 1921, Burns won the World Series with the New York Giants, and was the hero in Game 4, hitting a walk-off double. Shockingly, he was traded the next year to the Cincinnati Reds. He played in the Major Leagues until 1925 and then moved to the Minor Leagues until 1930.
Leslie Mann identifies the hitter as George Burns on page 7 of his manual titled the Fundamentals of Baseball. On Page 3 in the manual, Mann lists all of the players that appear in his slides, and there are only a few Reds players that he uses in these slides. I used this information to identify the catcher as Bubbles Hargraves in this slide.
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"
Lesch, R.J. "George Burns." Society for American Baseball Research, [ https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/c31a8104 ]. Accessed 21 Feb. 2018. _____Internet Archive_____. [http://web.archive.org/web/20180221175510/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/c31a8104].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-014-03
014