The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1912-12-02
EARLY BASEBALL.
The Game In the Days When II
Was Played With Bare Hands.
MASKS WERE NOT USED THEN.

Palms and Broken Fingers Wsre
Everyday ineidents-The Advent and
Development Of Protective Devices.
"Can you imagine a modern baseball
team playing the game barehandedY"
asked a gray haired fan while discuss
Ing diamond doings Of long ago. There
would be plenty OF business for the
bone settlers and 50 many errors In the
Geld that the sport would develop into
q burlesque. Yet can remember the
days when ball players never wore
gloves and when catchers had neither
masks nor mitts. II required great
courage to face a swift pitcher and lots
Of nerve 70 get In front Of hot
grounder."
Many Of our citizens who played
baseball more than thirty-hve years
ago will tell you that broken fingers.
bone bruises. split palms and torn fin
ger nails were everyday accidents and
that player who showed the white
feather was tabooed. Before gloves
and masks were invented catchers had
endless troubles. The old timers who
dared to stand close behind the bats
men had teeth knocked out and noses
fractured by the foul dps that could
not be avoided. Soon came a habit of
putting piece of solid rubber in the
mouth made In such a manner that IT
covered the lips and provided protec-
ton for the teeth. 1t proved so Eff
Gent that all the leading catchers
adopted 1t. But even then it was dan
gerous to catch close up until James
Tying. the former Harvard player, in
vented the mask. a cumbersome affair
with broad strips of fiattened iron that
covered the face, but also partially OBJ
scured the backstop's vision.
Then came the catcher's gloves, one
for each hand These gloves were of
| light kid. with no fingers and little or
no padding. Catchers who handled
swift deliveries, therefore. soon found
that the gloves did not come up to the
requirements. so it was a common
thing to see backstops stufhng grass
into the gloves to protect the palms of
the hands.
| One OF the first National league
catchers to use left hand glove with
| fingers was Meyers OF Indianapolis.
more than twenty-five years ago,
Somebody made glove for him that
caused a general laugh. The fingers
were so long and the surface of the
glove was so broad that Meyers found
| It difficult at first to hold a pitched
ball He was catching the great Hen
~ Boyle in those days. and Boyle had
binding speed Meyers had broken
all OF his fingers, also both thumbs, In
handling Boyle with the fingerless
| gloves. so that he readily tried the
he proved that it had merit After
that all the catchers adopted a finger
glove for the left hand The glove was
improved upon when the manufacture
er put solid leather tips on the ends OF
the fingers to protect the nails.
Buck Ewing, Silver Flint and Char
ley Bennett, three OF the greatest
backstops the game ever produced
were among the first to adopt the mitt
which WAS comparatively light at
fair, but made it Impossible to injurr
the fingers OF the left nand. A. The
/ manufacturers gradually Increased ia'
size and weight OF the catcher INIT
tbe mania tor gloves became general
The in and out feeders adopted them.
some using the mitt until the ba>ehaA
rule makers were forced to legisIut+
against the practice
When the rule STIMULATING the size of
the glove to be worn was passed the
catcher was allowed to wear the same
heavy mitt. while a lighter one was
assigned to the first baseman. But
all the other telders were compelled
to use a finger glove weighing not
more than half dozen ounces. Before
the in and out felders began to wear
Gloves. however many stars made re
markable records. Adrian G. Arson
played first base for the Chicagos for
many years barehanded The old man
was mark for such swift throw
ing infielders as Ed Williamson and
Fred Pfeffer, who tried In vain to
make him vince. Many times Arson
went home from the ball ield with
swollen fingers and very painful bone
bruises. but never used mitt or a
glove until near the end Of his dia-
mond career.
With the popularity of the glove
came an improved style Of mask The
wires were made smaller and stronger,
with the padding frmer. Later on the
mask had a visor of leather to keep
the sun out Of the catchers eyes, to
gether with a steel protection for the
neck and throat The chest protector
came into use In the eighties, but at
first it was not inflated. Ii was a fat
affair with a bamboo frame over which
was a buckskin covering. This did
not prevent catchers from being par
TALLY knocked out by sharp foul tips
In the bread basket, so the pneumatic
chest protector was hailed with de
light and is now indispensable.
Roger Bresnahan was the first major