Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 88

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 88
Description:
Jack Smith, an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, practices sliding into a base. Smith is hooking his right foot around the edge of the bag in the slide as he stares forward at the base.
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
Smith, Jack
St. Louis Cardinals
Sliding
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/147
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:
Jack Smith is demonstrating the correct way to use a hook slide when sliding into a base. When completing the hook slide, the runner runs at the base in a straight line path, but as he jumps in the air and prepares to slide, he shifts all of his body weight to the left side of the body, which allows him to hook to the left. In general, a runner can hook to the left or the right, and they should hook to the side that isn't guarded as well by the baseman. For example, when sliding into third, if the third baseman is standing on the right edge of the bag, the base runner should hook left. Smith doesn't need to be concerned about his right foot, rather only his left foot because as soon as his left foot hits the bag he would be safe. Smith extends his left foot and toe outwards along the edge of the bag hoping to make contact in this spot with his left foot before the baseman is able to place the glove with the baseball inside of it in front of him and tag him. This method of sliding is appropriate if the baseball is arriving at the exact same time that the base runner is because Smith might be able to avoid the tag that the baseman attempts by hooking his left foot to the other side of the bag and touching the base before the baseman can extend his glove to the location of the base runner's left foot.
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.Jack Smith was
I used facial recognition to identify the player in Slide 88 as Jack Smith, and the player in Slide 89 as Del Gainer. All of these slides deal with sliding and appear to be of the same players, making the players in slide 86 Smith and Gainer.
Fair condition;
The slide looks to have some smudges on the middle, and there is a mark on the left side of the slide in the middle.
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"
Eigenauer, John D. "The Mystery of Jack Smith’s Runs." Society for American Baseball Research, [ Eigenauer, John D. "T 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-088-03
088