|
A Game of Inches Updates, Chapter 9
The nature of a book of firsts is that it is always a work in progress. Although A Game of Inches was published only last year, I have already
received and uncovered a great deal of new information. I encourage anyone who
has read the book to contact me with questions,
concerns, comments, updates, and corrections. A few simple corrections have been
made in new printings, but longer updates will have to wait for the next
edition. For now, I’ll be putting such updates to both volumes on these pages on
an ongoing basis, so check back frequently if interested.
Links to Updates to Other Chapters
Chapter 1 Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapters 4-5
Chapters 6-8
Chapters 10-12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapters 15-17
Chapter 18
Chapters 19-21
Chapters 22-26
CHAPTER 9: EQUIPMENT
9.1.1 Manufactured Balls
I intend to add a new
paragraph after the fourth one: “Clubs now had a variety of balls to choose
from, which caused a new problem. An 1870 article reported, ‘Some dispute has
arisen of late in regard to the ball, it being claimed that the Atlantic Club,
of Brooklyn, use what has only lately been termed an “elastic” ball, and which
is no more or less than a Ross or Van Horn ball, both being very lively, and
made strictly in accordance with the regulations, being 5 ¼ ounces in weight, 9
¼ inches in circumference, and composed of yarn and India rubber covered with
sheepskin. These balls sell in this city for $2 and $1.75, respectively. It is
optional for nines to use them. They are better for the batters than for
fielders. The balls known as Atlantic and Bounding Rock may now be termed dead;
that is, they are not so lively – will not bound so high – as the Ross or Van
Horn, although they are made according to the requirements of the association.
They can be purchased for $1.50 each, and are the favorites for practice and
amateur matches. In addition to these are the Harwood, Peck & Snyder, Junior,
Diamond and Practice balls at $1 and 75 cents each. The ball of the New York
Rubber Company is a failure for base ball uses, the rubber cores tearing off
easily. It is really an “elastic” dead ball’ (Chadwick Scrapbooks, 1870 article
from Chicago).”
Then I want to rewrite paragraph 5 to read something like
this: “The 1870s and 1880s saw numerous attempts to devise a machine to
manufacture baseballs. Several of these are described in Dan Gutman’s Banana
Bats and Ding-Dong Balls, pages 150-151. The first truly successful
machinery for mass-producing standard baseballs was created by Ben Shibe of the
A. J. Reach Company. The Reach Company was using hydraulic pressure to
mass-produce cheap baseballs by 1883, and by 1888 was reportedly turning out
‘the enormous quantity of 1,000 dozen base balls per day in their giant factory,
where they employ over 400 hands.’ Official major league balls still had to be
hand-sewn and carried the hefty price tag of seventy-five cents, but the prices
of the cheaper balls dropped rapidly. Machine-made balls composed of leather
scraps could typically be bought for five cents and naturally did much to
encourage play at other levels (Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 1, 1888).”
9.1.2 Dimensions
I’m going to move the last sentence to a new paragraph and
add, “That was not entirely a coincidence. Henry Chadwick maintained that
cricketers had arrived at a ball of nine-inch circumference and weighing 5 ½
ounces through a process of experiments that determined that size to be the
safest possible for fielders. He crusaded against the tendency of ‘country
clubs’ and ‘clubs who excel in batting powers’ to use balls weighing as much as
6 ½ ounces and measuring up to ten inches in circumference (The Ball Player’s
Chronicle, September 5, 1867, 6).”
9.1.3 Covers
I plan to expand the last two paragraphs to read something
like this: “John Gruber reported that leather coverings ‘were used from the very
start. Before 1880, any kind of leather was allowed, sheepskin being mostly
preferred, because it was the universal belief that it lasted longer’ (Sporting
News, November 11, 1915). Then the troubles with soft balls described in
entry 9.1.5 ‘Insides’ forced a dramatic redesign of the baseball. As a result,
‘In 1878 the Mahn “double cover” ball was introduced and was the first ball of
its kind ever used. It was made as follows: A ball of molded vulcanized rubber,
one ounce in weight, was taken and wrapped with woolen yarn very tightly until
it was about two-thirds the size of the ball required, this was then covered
with horse hide; this ball was then again wrapped with yarn, but not so tightly
until of the requisite size and again covered with horse hide. The “cushion,”
that part of the ball between the inside ball and the outer covering, was not
made so hard so as to be more easily handled by catchers and other players; the
inside ball being very compact gave enough elasticity to the ball. It was also
found out at this time that horse hide was the best covering for base balls and
it is still so considered’ (Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 1, 1888).
“To reflect the Mahn baseballs, ‘in 1880
the rule was changed to read that the ball “must be composed of woolen yarn and
two horse-hide covers, inside and outside, with yarn between said covers.” From
that year dates the familiar expression of “hitting the horse-hide” (John H.
Gruber, Sporting News, November 11, 1915).’ But new balls continued to
be introduced, and in 1882, the wording of the rule was again changed and the
‘simple words “covered with leather” were reinserted’ (John H. Gruber,
Sporting News, November 11, 1915).
“In 1883, the American Association began
using the Reach ball, which, as an 1888 article explained, ‘is in one sense also
a double ball. Its composition is as follows: A round molded ball of pure
rubber weighing three-fourths of an ounce. This is wrapped with woolen yarn
until about one-half the size of the regular ball, and is then dipped in a
composition of rubber. It is again wrapped with woolen yarn until of the proper
size and then covered with horse hide. This ball has been found to be the best
ball ever used and its success has been a veritable gold mine to Al. J. Reach
and his partners, as his ball is in use wherever base ball is known’ (Cleveland
Plain Dealer, April 1, 1888).
“By this time, the rule-makers had decided
that it was silly to spend a lot of time rewording the rulebook every time a new
baseball came along. In 1887 they removed the word ‘leather’ altogether and
merely specified that the official league ball be used (John H. Gruber,
Sporting News, November 11, 1915). Horsehide remained the standard cover
until December 2, 1974, when major league baseball announced that cowhide would
also be permitted. This followed a similar change of baseball gloves from
horsehide to cowhide that took place around 1940 (Dan Gutman, Banana Bats and
Ding-Dong Balls, 206).”
9.1.4 Cover Design I might add
this description of two 1858 baseballs: “Both balls have odd one-piece covers
the leather having been cut in four semi-ovals still in one piece, the ovals
shaped like the petals of a flower.” (“Oldest Baseballs Bear Date of 1858,”
unidentified newspaper clipping, January 21, 1909, held in the origins of
baseball file at the Giamatti Center at the Hall of Fame, reprinted on the
Protoball website) 9.1.5 Insides
I intend to revise paragraph 7 to read something like this:
“This was the last time the specifications for the amount of rubber changed but
it was hardly the end of the issue. Some good fielding clubs in the mid-1870s
disregarded the rule and used baseballs with trace amounts of rubber or none at
all, with predictable results (Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 1, 1888).
In 1876, shortly after the founding of the National League, it was announced
that, ‘The regulation ball to be used by the professional clubs this season is
the “all-yarn ball,” without the customary ounce of rubber in it; the rubber
making the ball too lively for the players’ (New York Times, March 12,
1876, 2). The National League and its counterparts finally restored the rubber
to the ball, but then, ‘In 1883 …”
Then to the reference to the ball introduced by Reach in
1883, I’ll add a cross-reference to the description of that ball being added to
entry 8.1.3 (above).
9.1.6 Cork-centered Balls
After the eighth paragraph, I want to add an introductory
sentence to the effect that “Newspapers published detailed analyses of how the
lively ball had changed the game …” and then use at least part of these
comments:
“Included in the list of three hundred sluggers in the
various leagues about the country at this date, is a host of ball players, many
of whom have been in legue [sic] ball for some time, which is this year for the
first time classed in the charmed circle.
“This condition of affairs, critics
declare, results from the use of the much-mooted lively ball. A year ago
Blount, local outfielder, managed to hover about the .280 mark during the
greater part of the summer, not without sending himself at full speed. At this
date the speeder is clubbing well within the .300 clip and he will tell you that
he exerted himself just as much last season as he has been so far this summer.
“The same is true with Eddie Justice,
Pendry, Ragan and a number of other lesserweights about this circuit. If the
lively ball really is accountable for this turn in affairs it certainly is far
more desirable than the one used in the past and the occasional loose contests
certainly should be overlooked.
“In the past, with but few exceptions
in each league, the big busters alone were capable of clubbing their way into
the graces of fans and they alone were feared by clubs on the defense, a fact
which served to detract from the general interest in the game and made the play
more machine-like.
“Now all is different and any one
possessed with hitting powers can connect safely almost as often as will the big
powerful chaps, many of whom are utterly lacking in every department of play
except in hitting. Baseball brains which have made the game what it is are
placed on a par with muscles and the game is sent a notch forward even in the
face of the occasional romps scored in league ball throughout the land.” (“New
Lively Ball Places Brain on Par With Muscle,” Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette,
June 8, 1911)
An addition to the end: “Similarly, an ad in the
Spalding Guide included a testimonial from Roger Bresnahan that with the new
ball, ‘You can make a home run in the ninth inning just as easily as in the
first’ (quoted in Dan Gutman, Banana Bats and Ding-Dong Balls, 149).”
9.1.10 Clunk Balls
I need to emphasize that what I have described in this
entry is what happened in the major leagues. Then I’ll add to the end: “Minor
leagues had it even worse. According to minor league slugger Howie Moss, a ball
with a hard synthetic interior was used in the minors in both 1942 and 1943.
The results were unfair and unsatisfactory: ‘if you hit the ball squarely, and
hard, it would travel about 280 feet and then die like a wounded quail. Thus,
it became little more than a pop fly. But, if your timing was off and you would
undercut the ball – ‘pop’ – out of the ball park it would go’ (David Chrisman,
“Howie Moss: Minor League Slugger,” Baseball Research Journal 1982,
147).”
9.2.1 Types of Wood
Before the last paragraph, I’ll insert this new one: “As
baseball prospered, increasing care was given to procuring the best possible
timber. A 1908 article reported that major leaguers’ wood of choice now came
from Kentucky’s hilly regions and was ‘always grown on the north hillsides, as
the atmosphere on that side has a better effect on the trees and enables the
grain to be more perfect. The north side of a hill is better for bats, and also
the north side of a tree, and in ordering the very finest of bates the players
sometimes specify that they want the north side of a tree that was grown on the
north side of a hill’ (“Bats Used by Leading Hitters,” New York Herald,
reprinted in the Washington Post, September 6, 1908, M3).”
I also need to mention recent concerns that ash may become
rare or even extinct.
9.2.2 Dimensions
Prior to the George Wright quotation, probably in a new
paragraph, this will be a useful addition: “In 1908, however, minor leaguer
Tacks Parrott did use a forty-two-inch bat. He was playing for Galveston of the
Texas League at the time and that state’s wide opne spaces apparently affected
his thinking. ‘There is plenty of room out here to swing a long bat,’ Parrott
explained, ‘and the only reason I don’t have a longer one made is because they
wouldn’t allow me to use it’ (“Bats Used by Leading Hitters,” New York Herald,
reprinted in the Washington Post, September 6, 1908, M3).”
I’ll also try to fit in a mention that Shirley Povich
reported in 1937 that the longest bat then being used by a major leaguer was Al
Simmons’s twenty-seven-and-a-half-inch club. (Washington Post, June 15,
1937, 25)
9.2.3 Weights
This will be added after the first sentence of paragraph 3,
“A 1908 article claimed that there was a sixty-ounce maximum for bats (an
assertion for which I can find no evidence) and that one minor leaguer, William
McDonaugh of Denver, was using a sixty-ounce bat (“Bats Used by Leading
Hitters,” New York Herald, reprinted in the Washington Post,
September 6, 1908, M3).”
And an addition to the end of the entry: “Even Ruth himself
started to realize this. After using a massive fifty-four-ounce bat early in
his career, he had dropped down to a thirty-six-ouncer by his final season
(Shirley Povich, Washington Post, June 15, 1937, 25).”
9.2.4 Shapes
I need to better explain in the last paragraph that the
1893 decision to move the pitcher back to 60’6” from the plate was going to make
bunts too easy, so banning the flat bat was a compromise. That combined with
the 1894 rule that a foul bunt was a strike enabled the bunt to survive. I’ll
add cross-references to entries 1.17 and 2.2.1.
9.2.6 Mass-produced Bats
Here is an 1883 article about the Spalding bat factory in
Hastings, Michigan, which employed 100 men and made 500,000 bats a year: “Ash is
the staple bat wood. A proportion of fancy, and necessarily higher priced, bats
are made of cherry. Including the different woods and sizes, there are 22
styles of bat made for the trade, ranging in price at retail from 10 cents for a
juvenile article, up to $1.50 for an aesthetic cherry bat. The Hastings factory
will use in the neighborhood of 350,000 feet of ash, 250,000 feet of basswood
and 50,000 feet of cherry lumber this season, which means about 2,500 gross or
thirty car-loads of bats.” (Cleveland Herald, reprinted in the
National Police Gazette, July 7, 1883)
9.2.7 Models
I’ll be
rewriting this entire entry to accommodate two newly found articles:
Harry Slye, in
“Early days of Baseball in Baraboo – there were giant players in those days,”
Baraboo (Wisconsin) Daily News, June 25, 1925, wrote: “The bats were all home
made, and were mostly turned out at the upper Baraboo mills, either at the Drown
factory on the island or at the Thomas & Claude mill just above the upper bridge
at Lyons. Usually each individual had his favorite bat, made according to his
own specifications, and they all varied considerably in length, diameter, heft
and material. The favorite material was willow or ash, but sometimes elm or
oak, and various other timber was used and tested out.”
It seems a safe bet that similar practices occurred in other mill towns as well.
And this article may be the source of Lee Allen’s
claim:
“Each man of the ‘Greys’ has two bats of his own, marked with his name,
and no other man can use them. If by chance he breaks one it has to be replaced
at once.” (St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 13, 1879, 13) At any
rate, it offers confirmation that Providence hitters played a key role. 9.2.9 Louisville Sluggers
I want to note the irony that Gus Weyhing was one
of the worst-hitting pitchers in the history of baseball!
9.2.10 Burning Bats
I want to add the description on page 55 of Richard Bak’s
Peach. And I’ll add a comment to the effect that eventually bats began
to break too often for such precautions to be taken, but for many years rituals
such as these were a big part of batters’ lives.
9.2.11 Tapers
A possible addition is that Hornsby does appear to have had
some influence on popularizing tapered bats – according to Shirley Povich, his
36-02 bat became the most popular model among major leaguers. (Shirley Povich,
Washington Post, June 15, 1937, 25)
9.2.12 Bottle Bats
Some new information to add to the end: “Before Groh
debuted, a bat built along somewhat similar principles had been used by a minor
leaguer named Pete O’Brien. While playing for Minneapolis in 1908 O’Brien used
‘the “freakiest” bat ever seen on a baseball field, as his pet stick is 28
inches long and greatly resembles an old-fashioned potato masher. Its handle is
so short that it is barely large enough to allow its owner and designer to get
his hands on it. The batting end is fat and chubby, and is chopped off about
where most bats are beginning to taper. Although small, it is rather a heavy
little swatter, as its chubbiness keeps up its weight (“Bats Used by Leading
Hitters,” New York Herald, reprinted in the Washington Post,
September 6, 1908, M3).”
9.2.13 Extra Knob
This whole entry needs to be rewritten in light of these
articles:
“Napoleon Lajoie, the leading batsman of the American
League, has invented a baseball bat known as the Lajoie bat. Speaking of this
bat, John Morrill, famous as one of the batters of the old National League for
many years, says, ‘I believe that the Lajoie baseball bat will improve the
general batting. It is scientifically correct, the balance being perfect. The
special shoulder on the handle gives the player a firmer grip, and it seems to
be balanced better than the old-style bats. I feel sure that the players will
like it the moment they see and handle it. Batting is totally different to-day
from what it was several years ago, and in order to be a successful batter one
must have the bat under control at all times, and by gripping the Lajoie bat
just above the shoulder he is enabled to swing it quickly and sharply and meet
the ball true. There are so many left and right handed batters, that batters
ought to carry two bats of different lengths, one for the left-hand pitching and
one for the right, the curves being entirely different.” (New York Times,
March 8, 1903, 15)
Lajoie “invented a new bat with a little shoulder on the
handle in order to give a better grip.” (Boston Globe, March 9, 1903)
“Not until T. H. Murnane invented the Lajoie bat had anyone
evolved a bat on really scientific basis. Mr. Murnane’s experience as a player
and writer of baseball, covering three decades, enabled him to grasp the idea
and perfect it in short order after it occurred to him.
“He had seen a number of
players grasp their bats several inches above the handle and he knew that
logically that was the place to hold it. He knew also that the rim at the head
of the bat prevented it from slipping out of the player’s hands. So he put two
and two together, and the result was the bat now called the Lajoie bat. A
little experimenting proved that a better purchase could be given by placing an
extra rim of wood around the handle of the bat, two, three or four inches from
the head. This would give added strength to the player and a more secure hold.
“A better illustration is a
comparison of a bat with a hammer. By grasping the handle of a hammer a few
inches above the end a more satisfactory swing at a ball may be made. So it is
with the Lajoie bat, the added ring about the handle allowing the player to get
a grip higher up thereby ‘choking’ it, as it is called. This bat is the natural
result of the manner in which the men play the game these days. In old times
the batter stood up and used all his strength to swing at the ball, giving it a
mighty swipe. Now the batter meets the ball, and though he does not seem to put
any exertion in his movement, yet he hits at a hard clip. He tries to place it,
and at the same time the fielder is playing for the batter.
“Like other inventions, the bat
was first adopted by the college teams. Mr. Murnane patented it last year and
Brown college was the first to see its merit. Last season all the Brown players
used these bats and other college teams followed Brown’s example. A number of
the professionals took it up, but the league clubs, as a unit, did not.
However, this year the Lajoie bat promises to become a universal favorite
throughout the country.” (“Baseball Inventions,” Boston Globe, April 24,
1904, 24)
As a result of these pieces, I now believe the information
in the second sentence is misleading at best. But rewriting the entry will
still be a challenge as there are some confusing issues, especially that of
whether Lajoie or Murnane invented the bat. Another problematic question
is just how popular this bat really became. It certainly sounds as though
Murnane and some of his fellow sportswriters were engaged in puffery for the
bat.
9.2.15 Laminated Bats
This will be added to the start: “In 1923 Babe Ruth began
using a laminated bat made for him by fellow slugger Sam Crawford. But the bat
was soon ruled illegal by American League President Ban Johnson, who decreed
that bats had to be made of a single piece of wood (Al Kermisch, “Ruth’s
Laminated Bat Banned in 1923,” Baseball Research Journal 1983, 49).”
Then, in what is currently the first sentence, I’ll specify
that the remainder of the entry is about amateur and semipro play.
9.2.16 Aluminum Bats
I need to incorporate two
interesting articles from Dean Sullivan’s
Middle Innings on an early experiment with aluminum bats in Spokane,
Washington.
9.3.1 Fielders’ Gloves
After the first paragraph, I want to add something like
this: “Moreover, it is likely that even in most if not all of the few documented
instances of gloves being worn in baseball games before the 1870s, the gloves
were very thin. One reporter, for example, later claimed: ‘The greatest helps
that any of the old time players could expect were the thin gloves used in cold
weather. The protection they afforded was so insignificant as to be hardly
worth mention’ (Arthur Rockwood, Idaho Statesman, August 22, 1914, 6).”
After the third paragraph, I intend to add something along
these lines: “An 1855 description of baseball at the Elysian Fields recorded
that the players ‘dress in flannel tights, sandals and gloves, colored all over
in harlequin style.’ But obviously the gloves were a fashion statement, and the
players had no idea that they would one day be a standard baseball accessory (Erie
Observer, September 15, 1855, 2).”
9.3.2 Catchers’ Mitts
To paragraph nine, I want to add these examples: “A Cincinnati firm is making
a new catcher’s glove that is said to be excellent. The left hand covering is a
full one, the right or throwing hand being covered with a half glove to aid
throwing. The palm and joint padding is of felt.” (Cleveland Leader, April 2,
1884) “A new style of left-hand glove for catchers has been brought out. The
fingers are stiff cowhide, jointed at the bottom with buckskin. The finger-ends
are stout enough to withstand the severest blow, thus preventing the breaking of
joints, from which men behind the bat have so long suffered.” (Cleveland Leader,
April 4, 1884) I imagine both are describing the same glove.
Harry Decker deserves more credit than I gave him. While Decker did
eventually compile an impressively long criminal record and become notorious for
his dishonesty, I now believe that he developed his mitt independently while
playing for Toronto and did not steal it. Here’s one article that supports that
view:
“There are not many men left who know the exact circumstances of the
invention of the big glove, and the real story has never been told in print
before. The great glove, which has changed the whole defensive system of
baseball, was the result of a joke, and the joker thought only of the fun that
afternoon, although he was keen enough to make his humor pay him in the end. Was
ever a joke productive of so much history or so many dollars, either before or
after? Not in the world of baseball anyway.
“ ‘I was only a boy in Toronto,’ is how Kid
Bernstein, the ticket broker, tells the story, ‘but I was a fiend for baseball
and was always hanging around the park of the old Toronto team. For a minor
league lot that team was classy, too. Among the men I can still remember, Ed
Crane, who had the speed of Rusie – poor old Ed; Harry Decker, handsome,
polished, versatile in every playing position, yet destined to a finish of
unhappiness and sorrow; Mike Slattery, who afterward was a Giant star, and a
stocky little catcher by the name of Oldfield. There were others on that famous
team, and nearly all of them played in the fast company, but those were my
special friends.
“ ‘It fell to Oldfield’s lot to catch Ed
Crane, and to catch Crane, with the short pitching distance and the little
leather-tipped glove was an awful thing. Twice a week Oldfield caught Crane, and
so terrible was Ed’s speed that before the game was over the leather tips were
torn right off the glove. Oldfield’s hands were swelled and bunged, but he was
game and stuck to his painful job. One day in the clubhouse Oldfield exhibited
his swollen hands and Decker guffawed at him.
“ ‘ “Tell you what, old man,” laughed
Decker, “why don’t you have a mattress made in the style of a glove? That would
save your poor little fins and you wouldn’t have so many passed balls. Look –
suppose you get some leather like this and a lot of felt stuffing – like this
(picking up a lot of rubbish from the ground) and make a big mitten this way.
That would protect you, wouldn’t it, my tender little darling?” And Decker, who
was a mechanical genius kept rapidly at work with the odds and ends around the
clubhouse till he had a working model of a big glove that differed in no way, so
far as idea and general ground plan was concerned, from the big glove of today.
“ ‘Oldfield and the other players laughed
at Decker, but as he finished his invention they realized that something
practical was before him. Decker saw it, too. He stopped laughing. “Boys,” he
said, “I think this would work. I’m going to have one made.” And thus the big
catching mitt was born.
“ ‘Decker should have made a fortune from
his glove, which was patented and sold by the thousands. But he went wrong. Must
have gone crazy, I believe, for he forged checks and misbehaved in many ways
till he finally vanished from view and few people know whether he is living or
dead. But he invented that big glove, and there is the story of the
inventor.’”(“Intended for Joke Was Original Mitt,” Fort Wayne Sentinel,
March 2, 1910, 8)
At the end, I want to mention that mitts did much to make catcher a position
exclusively played by right-handers and add a cross-reference to entry 4.1.3.
9.3.3 Snaring Nets
An addition to the end: “But as cynics pointed out, such an
action was highly unlikely with highly placed National Leaguers Arthur Irwin, Al
Reach and A. G. Spalding all being actively involved in the manufacture of mitts
(Milwaukee Journal, February 13, 1895, 8).”
9.3.5 Last Gloveless Player
As Brian McKenna pointed out to me, I
misinterpreted the 1909 Washington Post article cited in the last
sentence. The article does imply that there were holdouts who didn't wear
gloves, but I don't believe it was anywhere near one-third of minor league
players. This mistake has been fixed in the most recent printing of the
book. 9.4.1 Rubber Mouthpieces
To the end of the third paragraph, I want to add: “James Tyng implied that they
were not all that effective, describing them as ‘a small piece of rubber held
between the teeth, and which, if struck by the ball, it was popularly supposed
would prevent the disagreeable contingency of being forced to swallow one’s one
teeth’ (Philadelphia Press, reprinted in the Cleveland Plain Dealer,
May 12, 1888).”
9.4.2 Catchers’ Masks
To the paragraph beginning “Reactions were mixed …”, I want
to add James Tyng’s own statement that, “When [the mask] first made its first
appearance on the field it was a subject of ridicule to the ‘bleaching board’
element, and all such guys as ‘mad dog’ and ‘muzzle ’em’ were very frequent
whenever I went up behind the bat; while on the part of the opposing players I
was subjected to good natured though somewhat derisive pity. For the first
year, if I remember rightly, hardly anyone beside myself used the mask, but
broken noses and damaged eyes soon brought conviction that catching behind steel
bars was preferable to unnecessarily exposing one’s features as a target for
erratic foul tips, and the general adoption of the mask was the consequence.” (Philadelphia
Press, reprinted in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 12, 1888)”
9.4.5 Chest Protectors
I need to emphasize that the chest protector worn by
Bennett and others in 1883 was not inflatable, whereas the Gray’s Body Protector
of 1884 was. I also need to credit William Gray of Hartford with inventing it,
and add a citation to
my
BioProject profile of him. I may also mention in passing Gray’s other
notable invention – the payphone.
An interesting description of the experiments with Gray’s
device: “the new rubber case, invented for the protection of the chests of
baseball catchers, was recently tested by O’Rourke and White of the Buffalo
club. O’Rourke donned the shield and allowed himself to be pounded with fists
and clubs, players also jumped on him, and the test was completed by White
standing ten feet away and throwing the ball against the chest-protector with
all his force, and O’Rourke did not feel the slightest shock.” (National
Police Gazette, April 19, 1884)
To the end of paragraph five, I intend to add this
description: “[Harry] Decker appeared yesterday with a contrivance that likened
him to a muffin-maker. (Not that he did any muffing, however.) It is a breast
protector of the latest improvement and saves a catcher many hard knocks.” (Evansville
Journal, August 3, 1884)
An addition to the end: “Each of these changes was designed
to improve the catcher’s range of motion. Chest protectors were also redesigned
in the early twentieth century to protect the shoulders and collarbone
(“Baseball Inventions,” Boston Globe, April 24, 1904, 24).”
9.4.6 Shin Guards
Another mention to add after Tim Murnane’s reference to
Ferd Thompson: Frederick K. Stearns later claimed that in the 1870s Frank Bliss
always caught “with his trousers tucked in long boots.” (Michigan Alumnus,
November 2, 1922) I imagine that the boots were intended to act as shin guards.
In addition, David Arcidiacono found this intriguing ad in
Sporting News, June 16, 1888, 8, “They can’t spike you if you use
Rawlings’ Leg Guards...Prevents Spiking, Prevents Bruising, Prevents Breaking.
To be worn under or over the stocking.”
Two more descriptions of Harry Steinfeldt’s shin guards:
“It would not be at all surprising to see shin pads become
an adjunct to the national game of base ball. The game, it is believed, owes
much to cricket now, and may owe more. Steinfeldt’s advent in the league will
mark the first introduction into the big league of a player who considers shin
pads as necessary to playing the game as spikes. Steinfeldt’s shin pads are of
the regulation cricket variety. They extend from just above the shoe tops to
the knee, and in no way interfere with the movements of the legs. They are worn
under the stockings and are not noticeable unless special attention is drawn to
them. Besides being a protection against hard hit balls that manage to elude
the hands, they afford excellent protection from spikes.” (Chadwick Scrapbooks)
“During the winter [Steinfeldt] was advertised as a hard
thrower, who stopped the ball with his shins, which were covered with pads, and
then relied upon his strong arm to do the rest. But this was a dainty notion.
He is a clean fielder and does not wear the pads for the purpose stated, but as
a protection against the sharp spikes of that class of player who delight in
cutting up a rival’s shins, and he has suffered that unfortunate experience.
After his recovery he secured whalebone shin pads that cannot be penetrated by
spikes.” (Arthur Titcomb, syndicated column, North Adams Transcript, May
2, 1898)
Paragraph nine ends with the sentence “What Bresnahan did
do was play a crucial role in popularizing them.” I’m going to change that to
read: “What Bresnahan did do was play a crucial role in popularizing them by
showing that it was practical to run while wearing them.”
In The Glory of Their Times, Bresnahan’s
contemporary George Gibson says that he used Bresnahan’s shin guards once, fell
down while chasing a foul, and never used them again. So there was probably
more resistance than I acknowledge. I’d like to confirm Gibson’s claim,
however, and whether he instead used a different type of protection for his
legs. If you know, please contact me.
9.4.9 Batting Helmets
The ad in Sporting News actually appeared in the
July 4, 1940 issue (on page 8), not the July 14 issue as I stated.
In the third
paragraph, I’ll replace the second sentence with: “Freddy Parent likewise donned
a pneumatic head protector after two 1907 beanings, but he too stopped wearing
it the following spring (Dan Desrochers, “Alfred L. ‘Freddy’ Parent,” in David
Jones, ed., Deadball Stars of the American League, 416; Sporting Life,
April 25, 1908).”
9.5.4 Spikes
An addition to the end of paragraph 3: “One approach that
was tried was shoes with removable spikes (Chadwick Scrapbooks, unspecified 1887
article).”
To the end of the last paragraph: “His reputation notwithstanding, even Cobb’s
contemporaries were adamant that he did not make a practice of deliberately
spiking fielders (Richard Bak, Peach, 63-64).”
|
