Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 45

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 45
Description:
Del Gainer, a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, stands holding a baseball bat in left field at Sportsman Park in St. Louis, Missouri. Gainer's feet are spread out a little more than shoulder width apart with one foot almost directly in front of the other.
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
Gainer, Dellas Clinton
St. Louis Cardinals
Batting
Batting Stance
Sportsman Park, St. Louis, Missouri
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/210
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 for a right handed batter to step forward when attempting to hit a baseball. Gainer has stepped forward in a straight path. In his original batting stance, Gainer's left foot was farther up than his right foot. However, the two feet were even vertically, meaning that his right foot was basically directly behind his left foot. When Gainer steps forward with his left foot, he maintains this position and just steps forward with his left foot. From here, Gainer would begin to pivot off his back right foot and complete his swing. Stepping forward correctly is important because it continues to keep Gainer balanced as he prepares to swing his bat, which increases his success.
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.
Leslie Mann identifies the player in slide 45 as Del Gainer on page 11 in his manual titled the Fundamentals of Baseball.
Good condition;
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"
Bouchard, Maurice. "Les Mann." Society for American Baseball Research, [https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/9e10a544]. Accessed 19 Oct. 2017. ___Internet Archive___. [https://web.archive.org/web/20171019184429/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/9e10a544].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-045-03
045