Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 46

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 46
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. His feet are spread a little more than shoulder width apart and are not in line with each other vertically as his front foot has moved outwards.
Creator:
Mann, Leslie
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
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/211
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 incorrect stepping for a batter. Gainer doesn't step forward with his left foot; rather he steps outward. This means that his left and right foot aren't located directly in front of one another anymore. Instead, his left foot is much farther away from the plate than his right foot. This is bad because it puts Gainer's whole body off center, which is noticeable here as one of Gainer's shoulders dips higher up than his other shoulder. Gainer would have much more difficulty swinging at the baseball and hitting it. Gainer would struggle to move the bat and hit pitches that weren't thrown directly over the middle of the plate because his body is off-center so a change in position would be much more difficult for him to accomplish successfully from this position than if he was standing straight up. Gainer should step straight forward with his left foot which would keep his feet in line with each other vertically, keeping his body in center and increasing his ability to hit the baseball.
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 46 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-046-03
046