Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 153

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 153
Description:
Louis North, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, holds a baseball in his right hand as he stares forward looking at a wall located in the outfield at an unidentified stadium.
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 fields
Baseballs
North, Louis Alexander
St. Louis Cardinals
Pitching
Pitching--Rest Position
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/256
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:
North is demonstrating the position that a pitcher stands in when they are waiting for a signal from the catcher about what type of pitch to throw. If North was on the actual pitcher's mound, this is the position he would be standing in while he stood behind the pitcher's mound. From here, once North and the catcher communicated on a pitch to be thrown, North would step on the rubber slab located on the mound and would throw the ball to home plate. In his manual titled the Fundamentals of Baseball, Leslie Mann reveals how, after studying North for a number of games, he chose to spread his fingers like this when he was preparing to throw a curveball. After him and the catcher agreed on the signal, North placed his fingers like this before stepping forward and throwing a curveball. This is a very bad habit because if the hitter sees North's hand in this form, then they would know that North is throwing a curveball, which would give them the advantage over the pitcher. North should not have set hand positions for different types of throws, and should instead always have the same hand position because it will make sure that the batter does not know what type of pitch will be thrown.
There is very little information about the life of Lou North. North was born on June 15, 1891 in Elgin, Illinois. North played for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, and the Boston Braves throughout his career. However, North played a very sporadic career, as he played in 1913 for the Tigers, didn't play in 1914-1916, played for the Cardinals in 1917, and then didn't play again until 1920. He then played from 1920-1924 as a member of the Cardinals, making his total career span 7 years. North served in World War I, which would explain why he didn't play for a couple years between 1917 and 1920, though there is no information as to why North played for one year with the Tigers and then took three years off. North was mainly a relief pitcher, as he only started in 25 games in his career, while he pitched in 80.
I used facial recognition to identify the player in Slide 153 as Louis North.
Good condition;
This digital image is made from two separate digital scans; one scan of the lantern slide (reflective); one scan of the image (transparency); the two image were then combined in Photoshop to create the final image.
Lantern slide from the Leslie Mann baseball instruction course, "The Fundamentals of Baseball"
"Lou North Stats." Baseball Almanac, [ www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=northlo01 ]. Accessed 31 Oct. 2017. ___Internet Archive___. [ http://web.archive.org/web/20171031172848/http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=northlo01 ].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-153-03
153