Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 147

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 147
Description:
Bill Sherdel, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, is in the process of throwing a baseball as he stares directly at the camera.
Creator:
Mann, Leslie
Creator:
E.W. Goodrich (Tremont Temple, Boston)
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
Sherdel, William Henry
St. Louis Cardinals
Pitching
Pitching--Follow Through
Link to Item:
https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/261
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:
Sherdel is demonstrating the correct way for a left handed pitcher to throw the cross fire pitch. The cross fire pitch is an alternate way for a baseball player to throw a baseball side arm. A cross fire pitch would cause the movements of the pitch to be different than if the pitch was thrown from the normal side arm position because of the way that the pitcher would position their feet. Today, there is very little information about what a cross fire pitch is, making it appear that the cross fire pitch was much more popular in the 1920's than it is today. The only difference between a cross fire pitch and a side arm pitch is that when Sherdel steps forward with his left foot, which he is in the process of doing here in this slide, he would land at a 45 degrees angle over towards the first base line. A regular side arm pitch would allow Sherdel to land directly in front of the rubber, but this pitch causes an adjustment of his left foot as he brings his entire arm across his body. This pitch would be just as appropriate for the pitcher to use compared to that of a regular side arm throw. It might actually be more beneficial to throw the baseball like this because it isn't as noticeable here that Sherdel is pitching the baseball side arm. This could be beneficial because throwing the baseball side arm causes it to move slightly different compared to if Sherdel had chosen to throw the ball normally. Sherdel could make it appear he was throwing the baseball normally, and could probably increase the spin on the baseball without the batter being prepared because the batter would not be able to tell as clearly that the pitcher was throwing the baseball sidearm.
William Henry Sherdel was born on August 15th, 1896 in McSherrystown, Pennsylvania. He was a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1918-1930 and a member of the Boston Braves from 1930-1932. Sherdel fits the definition of an average baseball pitcher, meaning that his career wasn't extraordinary, but it wasn't terrible. Sherdel often posted numbers right around the league average, and had a couple breakout seasons. When Rogers Hornsby became manager of the Cardinals, Sherdel's production increased due to a lot of motivation from Hornsby, and he actually became the ace, or the best pitcher, for the Cardinals over the next few seasons. Sherdel's career highlighting moments were pitching the NL Pennat winning games for the Cardinals in 1926 and 1928, and being a World Series champion in 1926. Sherdel was known for throwing the slow ball, which is a reference to the change up today. Sherdel has the fourth most wins for a pitcher in St. Louis Cardinals franchise history.
Leslie Mann identifies the same player as Bill Sherdel on Page 35 of his manual titled the Fundamentals of Baseball.
Poor condition;
The image is covered in cracks that run along the middle of it.
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"
Wolf, Gregory H. "Bill Sherdel." Society for American Baseball Research, [ https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/47e26849]. Accessed 16 Nov. 2017 ]. ___Internet Archive___. [ http://web.archive.org/web/20171116195347/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/47e26849 ].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-147-03
147