Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 48
Item Information
- Title:
- Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 48
- Description:
-
Del Gainer, a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, stands next to a dugout holding a bat in his hands with his feet spread much more than shoulder distance apart. Another Cardinals player sits on the edge of the dugout behind Gainer.
- 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
Baseballs
Gainer, Dellas Clinton
St. Louis Cardinals
Batting Stance
Batting
- Link to Item:
- https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/217
- 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).
- Publisher:
-
Springfield College
- Language:
-
English
- Notes:
-
Gainer is demonstrating an incorrect batting stance. The major reason why Gainer's batting stance is incorrect is because he has spread his feet out way too far apart. Gainer's legs look very awkward and spread apart in this slide, which isn't necessary. Gainer should bring both of his feet in closer together than they are here, as his feet should be around shoulder distance apart. Gainer's ability to complete a full, free, natural swing would be severely diminished by the batting stance he has chosen here. Gainer would struggle to step forward with his front foot before pivoting with his back foot since his feet are already so far apart. Because of this, not only would his hitting suffer, but also his transition from hitting to running would also suffer because it would be more difficult to start running naturally with his feet such a wide distance apart. Gainer's best bet is to bring his feet closer together so they are only shoulder width apart, which would increase his success not only in hitting but also in base running.
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 doesn't identify the player by name in his manual. However, Gainer is the person who Mann turns to for a majority of his hitting slides, especially on batting stance. Because of this and the little bit of the back of and face that we can see, I have identified this player as Del Gainer.
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"
Nowlin, Bill. "Del Gainer." Society for American Baseball Research, [ https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/0b74e2be ]. Accessed 30 Jan. 2018. ___Internet Archive___. [ http://web.archive.org/web/20180130152528/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/0b74e2be ].
- Identifier:
-
LANT-BSBL-048-03
048