Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 183

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 183
Description:
Bill Sherdel, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, stands in foul territory next to left field at Sportsman Park in St. Louis, Missouri. Sherdel is looking to the left side of his body away from the field and the camera as he stares at a wall. Sherdel is in the process of bringing his throwing hand across his body and towards the wall here.
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 fields
Sherdel, William Henry
St. Louis Cardinals
Pitching
Pitching--Follow Through
Pegging
Sportsman Park, St. Louis, Missouri
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/202
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:
Slide 183 is a continuation of Slide 182. In slide 182, there is a baserunner on first base so Sherdel is looking towards the first baseman. However, in slide 183, there is also a runner on third base. The runner leading off of first base wants to draw the attention of the pitcher. He wants the pitcher to either throw the ball to first base in an attempt to pick him off, or throw the ball to second base when he attempts to steal. This would allow the baserunner on third base to steal home plate. However, Sherdel is demonstrating the proper way for a pitcher to react when the runner on first base takes a lead off the base. Sherdel has instead turned his body towards third base and has thrown the ball to third base. If the baserunner on third base is taking a large enough lead, Sherdel may be able to pick him off, since the baserunner won't be expecting a throw from Sherdel since it appears Sherdel's attention was on the first base runner. Sherdel must be very cautious to minimize the leads of the third and first baseman, which he can do by making eye contact with the first baseman. If the first baseman takes too big of a lead, then Sherdel can either throw the baseball to first base to pick him off, or can throw the baseball to third base.
William Henry Sherdel was born on August 15th, 1896 in McSherrystown, Pennsylvania. He was a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1918-1930 and a member of the Boston Braves from 1930-1932. Sherdel fits the definition of an average baseball pitcher, meaning that his career wasn't extraordinary, but it wasn't terrible. Sherdel often posted numbers right around the league average, and had a couple breakout seasons. When Rogers Hornsby became manager of the Cardinals, Sherdel's production increased due to a lot of motivation from Hornsby, and he actually became the ace, or the best pitcher, for the Cardinals over the next few seasons. Sherdel's career highlighting moments were pitching the NL Pennat winning games for the Cardinals in 1926 and 1928, and being a World Series champion in 1926. Sherdel was known for throwing the slow ball, which is a reference to the change up today. Sherdel has the fourth most wins for a pitcher in St. Louis Cardinals franchise history.
Leslie Mann identifies the same player as Bill Sherdel on page 35 in his manual titled the Fundamentals of Baseball.
Terrible condition;
There are cracks located all throughout the image. This slide should be held with extreme caution and care.
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"
Wolf, Gregory H. "Bill Sherdel." Society for American Baseball Research, [ https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/47e26849]. Accessed 16 Nov. 2017 . ___Internet Archive___. [ http://web.archive.org/web/20171116195347/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/47e26849 ].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-183-03
183