Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 219

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 219
Description:
Rogers Hornsby, a second baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, stands with his feet spread slightly more than shoulder distance apart and his glove located on the ground. Hornsby has reached his non-throwing hand inside the glove, most likely to remove a baseball sitting inside of it.
Creator:
Mann, Leslie
Creator:
Erker Bros. Optical Co., St. Louis Mo.,
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
Fielding stance
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/161
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 a proper fielding stance when fielding a ground ball. Hornsby keeps his feet at a comfortable shoulder distance apart which allows him to field the baseball and immediately transition into throwing the baseball. Even though Hornsby has extended slightly more than shoulder distance apart, this is a comfortable position for Hornsby which will allow him to maxmimize his success fielding the baseball. Hornsby wants to make this transition as quick as possible, which will be easier to do if he keeps his body in a comfortable position when fielding the baseball. Because there will be a runner running towards first base, Hornsby wants to field the baseball quickly and throw the ball to first base as quickly as possible to ensure that the runner is thrown out. Hornsby also looks down at his glove and the baseball at all times, which will allow him to field the baseball and remove it from his glove cleanly. This is important for Hornsby to do because sometimes fielders have to rush, and if Hornsby rushed and wasn't looking at the baseball, there is a higher chance he would drop the baseball when making his transition into throwing.
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 219 as Rogers Hornsby on page 42 of his manual titled the Fundamentals of Baseball.
Good condition;
This digital image is made from two separate 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"
1. "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/bioproj/person/b5854fe4]. Accessed 5 Oct. 2017.] _Internet Archive_. [https://web.archive.org/web/20171005172551/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/b5854fe4].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-219-03
219