Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 187

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 187
Description:
Del Gainer, a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, awaits a throw from an infielder to first base. He has his hand and glove on his knees and is looking straight ahead as he stands with both of his feet located behind the base.
Creator:
Mann, Leslie
Creator:
Erker Bros. Optical Co., St. Louis Mo.,
Date:
1920–1925
Format:
Photographs
Location:
Springfield College Archives and Special Collections
Collection (local):
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide Collection
Subjects:
Baseball
Baseball caps
Baseball fields
Gainer, Dellas Clinton
St. Louis Cardinals
Fielding Stance
Fielding--First base
Sportsman Park, St. Louis, Missouri
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/84
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:
Del Gainer demonstrates an incorrect footing position while waiting for a throw from an infielder. Gainer stands behind the bag rather than in front of it. This will cause issues for a lot of reasons. If the throw reaches the base around the same time the runner does, Gainer is in no position to catch the ball quickly as he is behind the base. This will give the runner an extra second to run and advance to first base safely than if Gainer stood in front of the bag. Also, since Gainer is behind the base, there is a chance that the ball will actually hit the runner before it even reaches him. If Gainer tries to extend forward to catch the ball, he will most likely collide with the runner in the middle of the base which could cause injury to either him or the runner attempting to reach first base. Because of all of these reasons, Gainer should never stand behind first base instead of in front of it.
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.
I used facial recognition to identify the player in slide 187 as Gainer.
Terrible condition;
There are cracks located all throughout the center of the image.
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-187-03
187