The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-09
ANSON ON MITTS.
Talks Interestingly About "Silvef" Fiiat
and Other Ex.Stafs-.Says
Catchlug Is Essy.

"Anson." said Washington crank, II
saw you catch yesterday. don't ees
how an old man like you can do II"
Pm no old man." answered AnAon.
Besides it's no trick to catDh a BALI
But you have been catching now for
a week or more.
"Longer'n that all my life" Anson re-
Piled. I've never done anything else.
Though I've caught other things. it's
my business 10 catch balls. / put no
store by my actions the last week.
Donohue has bad finger. KittridEe
has bad arm. and 1t looks as II would
pretty often before he end Of the sea-
SON.
Does it hurt you?"
Hurt? No. My hands are like Har-
veyized armor. The work Of backstop
in these days is snap, anyway, COM
pared with the job of catchers when I
| started in. Think of old Silver Flint.
Silver's' hands were battered into 30
many angles that when spread ont they
resembied pretZels. In viewing his
bread winners you were as confused In
is in finding his way through the con-
torter streets Of Boston, where we've
Just been 'silver's' hands were one Of
the sights the sporting fraternity sought
when visiting Chicago.
Where were his mitts?" the fan
asked.
His mitts." said AnsOn. "Well, his
mitts were not born You must remem-
Der we didn't wear mitts in the early
days of the game. I've seen q man
catch balls until his hands were black
and blue clean through. Even the
hairs on the backs-here-were blue,
too. They would begin to get blue at the
roots, and each time you caught a hot
drive they would get blue little farther
up
Just the same. l believe the game
ought to be played without gloves"
Clipped in "rim'' Donohue. who was
sitting near, nursing his sore finger.
Il don't" said AnsOn. WHATS the
use of taking punishment when you
can just as well avoid it? There were
no masks or pads in Flint's early days
as backstop. We used to wear little
gloves on both hands with the fingers
clipped off. I remember / wore them
when did my first catching. But they
were of little use. / knew then that
the game would be improved in me-
chanical way by the introduction Of ap-
pliances, such as masks and gloves as
they now exist. / got myself laughed
at once for predicting that the time
would come when catchers would be
protected by gloves. masks and pads"
when did the masks come in?"
"Oh, after the gloves said Anson
"rhe hurt was worst OH the hands, and
so they were looked after first. l re-
member catching often and never
thinking of mask. We used to wear
piece of rubber hooked i'm our mouths
to protect our teeth. The idea was 10
prevent us from becoming toothless be-
fore our time. This piece OF rubber
was invented by chap i'm Boston. The
scheme was to insert the rubber in the
mouth on advancing to the position be-
hind the batsman. The inventor
thought it would resist the force Of the
blow i'm case the ball hit the catcher in
the mouth. They weren't thinking of
our eyes and noses. We were supposed
to save them by lodging. The rubber
was an awkward thing and not a sue
cess. Shortly after 1t was placed on
the market l read in the Chicago pap
ers of lad catching In an amateur
team who was almost choked to death
with one Of those rubbers. A foul
caught him full on the rubber and
rammed it down his throat"
l