Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 103

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 103
Description:
Hank Gowdy, a catcher for the Boston Braves, stands directly behind a warm up plate in the outfield at Braves Field in Boston, Massachusetts. Gowdy has a slight bend in his knees as he holds his glove along the middle of the body of his chest with his throwing hand located behind the glove.
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
Gowdy, Henry Morgan
Boston Braves
Catching
Catching Stance
Braves Field, Boston, Massachusetts
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/116
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:
Hank Gowdy is demonstrating the proper way for a catcher to give the pitcher a shoulder level target for their throw. What that means is that Gowdy has placed his glove at the shoulder level of the batter, which is why he has an ever so slight bend in his knees. Gowdy has placed the target in the middle of his body, which gives the pitcher a larger area to target. If the pitcher threw the ball to the left or to the right of the target, Gowdy would be able to adjust his glove to catch the baseball. However, if Gowdy originally held his glove to the left side of his body and the pitch was thrown even more to the left, then Gowdy would probably have difficulty adjusting his glove even farther to the left in order to field the baseball. Therefore, placing the glove across the middle of his body gives the pitcher the widest range of targeting possible. Therefore, the pitcher has a wider range of error if they miss the target spot if the glove is held in the middle of the catcher's chest.
Hank Morgan Gowdy was born on August 24th, 1889 in Columbus, Ohio. Gowdy was baseball catcher who played for the New York Giants and the Boston Braves during his career. Gowdy is notable for many reasons. Gowdy was a member of the 1914 Miracle Boston Braves season. This was arguably his best season as a pro. He was even considered by a lot of people to be the MVP of the World Series. In 1913, the Boston Braves finished in 5th place in their division, and weren't seen as a threat entering 1914. The Braves lived up to this until July 4th, as they were in last place in the division. However, the Braves played exceptionally well the rest of the season, eventually capturing first place on September 8th and winning the World Series, where they swept the heavily favored Athletics. In the World Series, Gowdy batted an incredible .545 and hit the only home run in the series. In Game 3, he hit a double in the 12th inning. After hitting the double, Leslie Mann pinch ran for him and Mann scored the winning run. Gowdy wasn't too successful other than this one incredible season. Gowdy was also the first active major league player to serve in a war, as he took a break from baseball and served in World War I. Gowdy also served in World War II, which occurred after he had retired from baseball. Gowdy is also known as the only player to receive more than 20 percent of the written votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame before 1960, and not ever get elected to the Hall of Fame. Gowdy probably had many failed attempts because he wasn't an exceptional player, but had career highlighting moments like the 1914 Braves and entering World War I. Gowdy is one of few players to be included on the slides that isn't a member of the St. Louis Cardinals or Cincinnati Reds, the two teams Mann played for during this time period.
Leslie Mann identifies the player in slide 103 as Hank Gowdy on page 26 of his manual titled the Fundamentals of Baseball.
Good condition;
This digital image is made from two separate digital scans; one scan of the lantern slide (reflective); one scan of the image (transparecy); the two images were then combined in Photoshop to create the final image.
Lantern slide from the Leslie Mann baseball instruction course, "The Fundamentals of Baseball"
1. Womack, Graham. "When Hank Gowdy was a Popular Hall of Fame Candidate." The National Pastime Muesum, 12 Apr. 2015, [https://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/when-hank-gowdy-was-popular-hall-fame-candidate ]. Accessed 12 Oct. 2017. [https://web.archive.org/web/20171012181728/https://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/when-hank-gowdy-was-popular-hall-fame-candidate] . 2. McMains, Carol, and Frank Ceresi. "Hank Gowdy." Society for American Baseball Research, [https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/afac3842 ]. Accessed 12 Oct. 2017. ___Internet Archive__ . [https://web.archive.org/web/20171012183113/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/afac3842].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-103-03
103