Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 212

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 212
Description:
Del Gainer, a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, stands holding his glove out in front of him slightly above waist level as he looks directly forward with his feet spread about shoulder width apart.
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
Gainer, Dellas Clinton
St. Louis Cardinals
Fielding
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/129
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:
Gainer is demonstrating the correct way to field a line drive baseball hit above his waist level but below his shoulder level. The way Gainer is attempting to catch this line drive would only work if the baseball was hit directly in front of him (like it is in this slide), or if the ball was hit on his strong side. If the ball was hit on his weak side, then Gainer would have to turn his glove to catch the baseball as he would have to bring his glove across his body. Gainer has judged the exact location of the line drive baseball using his eyes as he is looking forward, and has placed his glove in that position with his non-throwing hand behind his glove. The best way to catch these line drives is to position the glove perfectly so that the baseball lands directly in the pocket of the glove.
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.
Del Gainer's name is spelt Del Gainor in some of the books Leslie Mann wrote about baseball and baseball fundamentals. It is interesting that these two different spellings both appear frequently. Also, since Gainer was only a member of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1922, the lantern slide had to of been created in 1922.
Good condition;
The image appears to be a bit dark but there are no cracks or scratches 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 images 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-212-03
212