The Detroit times., 1910-11-30

ton. he resisted the advice or the
physician who examined him, ana nh
ished the game. When he was hnal-
~ carried from the field with his
wound broken open and his shirt all
clotted with blood, he was glad that
he had caught the game. Imagine
one OF the modern catchers III sclen-
tifc baseball catching a game like
that
Perhaps the best catcher who
ever stood behind the bat was Charlie
Bennett, of the old Detroits. Lon
Knight, the famous old Athletic play
err, tells now Bennett caught for his
club, game after game, while suffer-
ing the most intense agony from a
split thumb Bennett never wore
the catcher's mitt The only glove he
wore while catching was an ordinary
kid glove with the fingers and
thumb cut off. During one OF the
games his thumb was split open from
the hand to the tip, clear to the bone.
Instead of going to the hospital or
taking rest. he persisted in catch
ing, day after day, with his thumb in
this condition.
Between each inning he would
have to sponge the cash in his thumb
with cotton soaked in antiseptic
which he carried with him in his
pocket, in order to remove the cor
ruption which was continually flow
ing from the wound. This he did in
spite of the fact that the doctor
warned him that he must either stop
playing ball until the thumb had en-
tirely healed, or lose his thumb, or
even his arm, as blood poison was IL
able TO set in He continued, how
ever. to catch the game until ii was
impossible for him to do SO any long
er.
And In the days of both Dockney
and Bennett the pitching was swift
and the ball was just as hard as II
is today, the distance between the
pitchers box and the batsmen being
even shorter than at the present
time"
Now, right here, in connection with
this very interesting article from the
pen of Mr.. Flynn, ii might be we'll
10 refer to other great catchers be
side Dockney and Bennett, who also
played behind the bat in their day
and faced the speediest OF pitchers
without the aid of mask or gloves.
When Frank Flint, for example, the
great st. Louis catcher who played so
long behind the bat for the Chicago
White Stockings, quit playing profess
sional baseball, he told his friends
that every joint in every one OF his
fingers had been broken at least once
and that his nose had been frequent
" put out OF joint and his teeth
smashed.
To protect the fingers was the first
thing done when players commenced
to wear ordinary buckskin gloves.
Later a piece Of rubber was used be
tween the teeth 10 protect the molars
and the mouth and then came the
mask.
The story Is that Thayer. captain
of the Harvard baseball team wanted
Tying. one OF his best players 10 catch
close up under the bat Tying, hand
some fellow, having some respec for
his frontispiece, demurred Thayer
one day in the college gymnasium
saw a fencer wearing mask and
putting IL on. caught few balls as
an experiment He found that the
wire covering the eyes interfered
with his work, but he had tinsmith
remove that obstacle and then he of
fered the newly made affair to Tying
IL was the same mask really, in the
rough, as is worn today Tying tried
il on, liked It. found il practical and
wore II in all the games he played
afterwards That was in 1877 and
from then on the mask came into
general use, being improved on each
year by the sporting goods manufac-
turers until IL became the perfeC;
thing IL is today.
After the mask came the chest pro
tector, the shin guards and the catch
ers glove-things that made almost
an entirely new business out OF the
art of catching.