Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 218

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 218
Description:
Rogers Hornsby, a second baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, is in the process of jumping off the ground and into the air as both of his feet are lifted off the ground. Hornsby has extended his glove above his head as much as possible, and a baseball sits inside the middle of his 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
Baseball fields
Hornsby, Rogers
St. Louis Cardinals
Fielding
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/99
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:
Hornsby demonstrates the proper way to field a line drive hit above your head. If the baseball is hit above your head but is still catchable (meaning that the baseball hit is still hit on a line drive but just a little bit higher than head level), then the fielder can attempt to jump and catch the baseball. The goal is to catch the baseball so it lands in the middle of the glove, or the natural pocket in the glove. If the ball successfully lands in this natural pocket, then the odds of it falling out of the glove are lowered and the likelihood of making a clean catch on the baseball is increased. Even if Hornsby is unsuccessful in his attempt at catching a line drive hit above his head for whatever reason (baseball is hit too high in the air and Hornsby can’t jump high enough or baseball doesn't land in the pocket of his glove), Hornsby and the Cardinals in general don't have a lot to lose by Hornsby attempting to catch the baseball by jumping since the baseball will land in the outfield for a hit if no attempt by Hornsby is made to catch the ball. Even if Hornsby is able to stop the ball from going over his head but is unsuccessful in catching it (which could occur if the baseball doesn't land in the pocket of his glove), this would still be better than if the baseball landed in the outfield because the baseball would instead be contained in the infield, which wouldn't allow any runners to advance extra bases. This shows that even if the line drive baseball is probably uncatchable, the fielder should still attempt to catch it because there is nothing to lose if the attempt is unsuccessful. However, what Hornsby does well in this slide is he keeps his eyes on the baseball which allows him to better judge the baseball's location. This judgement allowed Hornsby to make a clean catch on the baseball as the ball lands in the middle of his glove, or the pocket.
Rogers Hornsby was born on April 27, 1896 in Winters, Texas. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, Boston Braves, and the St. Louis Browns during his career, but he spent most of his years as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. He is considered one of the greatest hitters of all time, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1942. Hornsby has the second highest career batting average in MLB history behind only Ty Cobb, with a lifetime batting average of. 358. He led the national league in batting seven times in his career. After retiring, Hornsby was a manager. One of the craziest facts about Hornsby is that he wasn't that good at baseball when he first started playing in the major leagues. He was skinny during his first season, and hit.246. His manager told Hornsby he was a little light, but he had the talent and said he was going to farm him out for a year. What he meant by this was he would send Hornsby to the Minor Leagues for a year to help him develop his baseball skills. However, Hornsby took this saying of farm out literally, and he spent the winter on his Uncle's farm. He gained 30 pounds of muscle and then became one of, if not, the greatest hitter in major league history. Hornsby was a very confident man who wasn't afraid to speak his mind, as he even called his manager a "boob" and his teammates "pigeons". Because of this, he often didn't get along with his teammates or coaches. Overall, though Hornsby may have been a difficult person to be friends with, he was one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
Leslie Mann identifies the player in slide 218 as Hornsby on page 42 of his manual titled the Fundamentals of Baseball.
Good condition;
The slide is faded and much of the image in the middle of the slide is very hazy. However, there appears to be no cracks on 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"
. "Rogers Hornsby."National Baseball Hall of Fame, [https://baseballhall.org/hof/hornsby-rogers]. Accessed 5 Oct. 2017. _Internet Archive_. [https://web.archive.org/web/20171005174129/https://baseballhall.org/hof/hornsby-rogers]. 2. Paul Rogers III, C. "Rogers Hornsby." Society for American Baseball Research, edited by Gregory H. Wolf, [https://sabr.org/author/c-paul-rogers-iii]. Accessed 5 Oct. 2017. _Internet Archive_. [https://web.archive.org/web/20171005172551/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/b5854fe4].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-218-03
218