The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-04-08
GLOVE and mask
ARE NOT So Old
AT ONE TIME BALL PLAYERS HAD
NO PROTECTION From :.
INJURY
GAME WAS DANGEROUS
BROKEN FINGERS RESULTED. BUT
RELIEF WAS AFFORDED ny
NIT AND OTHER
APPLIANCES.

| Can you imagine modern base
ball team playing the game bare
handler? asked gray haired fan
while discussing diamond doings Of
long ago. There would be plenty
of business for the bone settlers and
so many errors In the field that the
! sport would develop into a burlesque.
| Yet l can remember the days when
| when catchers had neither masks nor
mitts 1t required great courage to
face swift pitcher and lots OF nerve
! to get In front of a hot grounder.
Nowadays, however, ball playing isn't
SO painful with the softly padded field
ers' gloves, the steel wire masks, the
heavy catchers' mitts. chest protec-
tors and shinguards to protect the
/ players from harm"
baseball more than thirty-five years
ago will tell you that broken fingers.
bone bruises. split palms and torn
nnger nails were every day accidents
! and that piaver who showea 'ne
white feather was tabooed Before
gloves and masks were invented CATCH
ers had endless troubles. The old
timers who dared to stand close be-
hind the batsmen had teeth knocked
I
foul tips that could not be avoided.
Soon came habit OF putting q piece
Of solid rubber in the mouth made in
such q manner that 1t covered the
lips and provided protection for the
teeth. 1t proved 30 efficient that all
the leading catchers adopted II. But
even then 1t was dangerous to catch
close up until James Tying. the for
mer Harvard player, invented the
! nnask n ha az writ
broad strips Of flattei.ed Iron that COW
cred the face. but also partially OBJ
secured the backstops vision.
The mask was the first continuance
calculated to prevent serious injury.
/ 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 1t was a COM
mon thing to see baskstops stuff1ng
grass cotton batting and even strips
Of meat into the gloves to protect the
| pa'~-s II the bands whom u-1a- a
! 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 q glove for him that
caused general laugh. The fingers
were so long and the surface Of the
glove was so broad that Meyers found
! 1t diff1cult at first to hold a pitched
ball. He was catchingf the great
Henry 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. 20 that he readily
tried the new one. and after much
perseverance,. he proved that 1t had
merit. After that all the catchers
adopted finger glove for the left
hand. The glove was improved UPON
when the manufacturer put solid
leather tips on the ends OF the An
gers to protest the nails. Even then
catchers were not envies by the 9th
er Players for their right hands usual
ly wer mangled until physicians had
to be called in.
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 a comparatively light
affair. but made It impossible to injure
the fingers Of the left hand. Incl
dentally these star catchers began ia
show that one hand was sufficient to
catch pitched ball. They discarded
fhe right hand glove and soon per-
fected a movement of tho left wrist
that placed the mitt in the right DO.
sition to receive the mall Ewing once
told the writer that during an entire
season he didn't catch more than a
dozen pitched balls with his bare
hand. He used to enjoy catching the
epuzzling curves OF Keefe. welch and
Crane with the mitt. which made II al
most impossible to have a passed ball
h. ~tspt@t
gradually learned to throw to bases
with greater speed and accuracy thar
ever before. for q ball thrown with
a glove hand naturally Travelled slowly
and without the proper aim.
AS the manufacturers gradually In
creased the size and weight OF the
catcher's mitt the mania for gloves
became general. The In and out
helders adopted them. some using the
init until the baseball rule makers
were forced to iegisIafe against the
practice. Lave Cross. once a tiptop
third baseman. played that position
with regular catcher's mitt, which
made It impossible for. him to miss
hard ground hits or drop . fly ball
Gross raised a laugh at the Polo
J Grounds one day when he reached
back with his mitt. caught a high
foul and then turned the palm Of the
glove down without dropping the
leather.
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 lighter one
was assigned to the first haseman.
But all the other fielders were conf
PEELED to use a finger glove weighing
not more than half a dozen ounces.
This included the pitchers, Of whom
George Cuppy. Of the clevelands, was
among the first to protect the left
hand In this manner. Before the
in and out FEEDERS began to wear
gloves. however. many stars made re.
markable records. Adrian G.. Anso:a
played first base for the Chiragos for
many years bare handed The old
man was g mark for such swift
throwing infielders as Ed Williamson
and Fred Pfeffer. who tried IN vain
TO make him vince Many times An
son went home from the bail Held
with swollen timers snd pa 'nful bone
bruises, but never used 4 yhitt or q,
glove until he began to near the emil
OF his diamopd career.
Jerry Denny. the star third basefnau
OF the champion Providencs team ~
1854. played with bare hands. Ne
faced cannon shots without q sign Of
Sinking. and became famous all over
the country for his wonderful one
handed stops. When Billy Nash Join.