Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 15

Item Information

Title:
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide, No. 15
Description:
Rogers Hornsby, a second baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, practices his batting stance while standing in foul territory at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio. Horsnby stands with his feet spread shoulder width distance apart with his hands near the edge of the bat with his right hand directly above his left hand.
Creator:
Mann, Leslie
Date:
1920–1925
Format:
Photographs
Location:
Springfield College Archives and Special Collections
Collection (local):
Leslie Mann Baseball Lantern Slide Collection
Subjects:
Baseball
Baseball caps
Baseball fields
Hornsby, Rogers
St. Louis Cardinals
Batting
Batting Stance
Batting Swing
Crosley Field, Cincinnati, Ohio
Link to Item:
http://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16122coll10/id/223
Terms of Use:
Rights status not evaluated.
This work is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike License (CC BY-NC-SA).
CC BY-NC-SA icon
Publisher:
Springfield College
Language:
English
Notes:
Hornsby is demonstrating a correct batting stance that right handed hitters should follow when attempting to hit a baseball thrown to them. Hornsby has brought his left arm as far back as possible across his chest. This is important because it will maximize the strength of Hornsby's swing as it will allow him to have a complete swing on the baseball. His right arm is not in contact with his body either as he has extended it outward away from his body. This will allow Hornsby to complete a free swing. If his arm was tucked in completely against his body, his ability to have a free swing would be hindered. If his arm was tucked, it would be more difficult for him to swing at a pitch that wasn't thrown directly across the plate because his arm would need to move with his entire body. However, Hornsby has done a great job at separating his arms from his body, which will allow him to have a free swing on the baseball. Hornsby's feet are also a comfortable distance apart and he looks to be very on balance. From this position, Hornsby can easily lift his back right foot forward as he swings at the baseball to maximize his strength. Overall, this is a batting stance that all right handed hitters should follow. Hornsby is not only on balance, but he has moved both of arms away from his body in order to allow him to have a free, complete, swing on the baseball.
Rogers Hornsby was born on April 27, 1896 in Winters, Texas. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, Boston Braves, and the St. Louis Browns during his career, but he spent most of his years as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. He is considered one of the greatest hitters of all time, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1942. Hornsby has the second highest career batting average in MLB history behind only Ty Cobb, with a lifetime batting average of .358. He led the national league in batting seven times in his career. After retiring, Hornsby was a manager. One of the craziest facts about Hornsby is that he wasn't that good at baseball when he first started playing in the major leagues. He was skinny during his first season, and hit .246. His manager told Hornsby he was a little light, but he had the talent and said he was going to farm him out for a year. What he meant by this was he would send Hornsby to the Minor Leagues for a year to help him develop his baseball skills. However, Hornsby took this saying of farm out literally, and he spent the winter on his Uncle's farm. He gained 30 pounds of muscle and then became one of, if not, the greatest hitter in major league history. Hornsby was a very confident man who wasn't afraid to speak his mind, as he even called his manager a "boob" and his teammates "pigeons". Because of this, he often didn't get along with his teammates or coaches. Overall, though Hornsby may have been a difficult person to be friends with, he was one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
Leslie Mann identifies the player in slide 15 as Rogers Hornsby on page 7 in his manual titled the Fundamentals of Baseball.
Good condition;
This digital image is made from two separate digital scans; one scan of the lantern slide (reflective); one scan of the image (transparecy); the two images were then combined in Photoshop to create the final image.
Lantern slide from the Leslie Mann baseball instruction course, "The Fundamentals of Baseball"
1. "Rogers Hornsby."National Baseball Hall of Fame, [https://baseballhall.org/hof/hornsby-rogers]. Accessed 5 Oct. 2017]. _Internet Archive_. [https://web.archive.org/web/20171005174129/https://baseballhall.org/hof/hornsby-rogers] . 2. Paul Rogers III, C. "Rogers Hornsby." Society for American Baseball Research, edited by Gregory H. Wolf, [https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/b5854fe4]. Accessed 5 Oct. 2017.] _Internet Archive_. [https://web.archive.org/web/20171005172551/https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/b5854fe4].
Identifier:
LANT-BSBL-015-03
015