Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 60

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 60
Description:
Jack Smith, an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, stands in the batter's box awaiting the throw from the pitcher. Smith looks downward towards the plate while his bat is pointed toward the ground as the catcher stands behind him.
Creator:
Mann, Leslie
Creator:
E.W. Goodrich (Tremont Temple, Boston)
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
Smith, Jack
St. Louis Cardinals
Batting
Batting Stance
Catching
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/137
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:
Smith demonstrates an improper way of preparing for a pitcher to throw a pitch when standing inside the batter's box. As soon as the batter has stepped inside the batter's box, he is telling the pitcher that he is ready for him to throw the pitch. However, Smith is in no way ready for the pitcher to throw the pitch. If the pitcher threw the pitch right now, Smith most likely could not get in the proper set position in time in order to hit the baseball. Smith may not even see the baseball get thrown because he is looking downwards at the ground rather than looking upward at the pitcher. He would need to bring the bat upwards very quickly and would be rushed. If the pitcher was smart, he would throw the pitch right now when Smith wasn't ready. Smith should do his batting preparation outside the batter's box rather than inside it, and should only step inside the box when he is ready for the pitcher to throw the baseball.
Jack Smith was born June 23, 1895 in Chicago, Illinois. Smith played for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Braves during his career, spending the majority of his time playing for the Cardinals. Smith was a left handed outfielder during his career. He was not a big home run hitter, hitting only 40 throughout his entire career. Smith, however, seemed to be generally fast, stealing over 20 bases 6 times in his career. However, the most bizarre thing about Jack Smith is his ability to score runs when he was on base. In 1925, Smith scored 65.4 percent of the time he was on base. Smith got on base 86 times during the season and scored a run 53 times. This is the highest success percentage of all-time. Though this stat appears to be luck and this idea is generally supported by the fact that Smith and many other not well-known players made the list, Smith made the Top 50 list 5 times in his career, while no one else made the list more than twice.
Leslie Mann identifies the player in slide 59 as Jack Smith in his manual titled the Fundamentals of Baseball, and this is the same player as the one in Slide 60 as it is a continuation 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 images were then combined in Photoshop to create the final image.
Lantern slide from the Leslie Mann baseball instruction course, "The Fundamentals of Baseball"
Eigenauer, John D. "The Mystery of Jack Smith’s Runs." Society for American Baseball Research, [ https://sabr.org/research/mystery-jack-smith-s-runs] . Accessed 21 May 2018. ___Internet Archive___ [http://web.archive.org/web/20180521134512/https://sabr.org/research/mystery-jack-smith-s-runs ].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-060-03
060