Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 208

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 208
Description:
Del Gainer, a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, stands behind and to the left of first base. Gainer has brought his throwing hand which is holding the baseball above his head. Another unidentified baseball player stands directly in front of first base while holding his glove out in front of his body.
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
Fielding--First base
Fielding--Pitcher
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/232
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 way for a first baseman to throw a baseball to a pitcher who is covering first base. Gainer and the pitcher are located very close to one another. Because of this, there is no reason for Gainer to throw the ball overhanded towards the pitcher. Overhand throws are needed when the person throwing the baseball needs to have strength behind their throw. However, if the pitcher and first baseman are this close to one another, then a light underhanded throw would be sufficient. Gainer would need to bring his arm all the way behind him and complete the process of throwing the ball overhanded, which is more time consuming than if he just chose to throw the ball underhanded lightly towards the pitcher. Though these couple seconds may not seem like a big deal, they can make the difference in whether a baserunner reaches first base successfully. The pitcher is also on the move in this slide. This would make it more difficult for a pitcher to catch a harder thrown ball than if the ball was thrown lightly. Because of this, Gainer should just throw the ball lightly towards the pitcher and first base, which could easily be accomplished if the first baseman threw the ball underhanded.
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.
I used facial recognition to identify the first baseman as Del Gainer. However, I wasn't able to identify the pitcher who is covering first base in this slide.
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-208-03
208