Barehanded baseball

Vintage baseball teams play according to Civil War-era rules. No gloves, underhanded pitching, and fielders can retire batters if they catch the ball after one bounce. This aspect of early baseball, barehanded fielding, is one reason why broken fingers occur so commonly among vintage players. Let's talk about barehanded baseball. 160 years ago, you didn't need much equipment to play baseball apart from a bat and a ball. Players made bats from ash, maple, and pine wood. They created their balls by stitching together two peels of leather around a rubber or cork core wrapped in yarn. Balls varied in weight and size, and no one knew what kind of ball the home team would show up with. In this respect, harder, less bouncy balls caused many of the sport's injuries. Things began to change with the establishment of professional leagues. The National League, established in 1876, standardized the ball size, weight, and shape. Barehanded fielding, however, remained, and it was one reason why spectators would pay to see a professional game. Here, I want to mention Moses Fleetwood Walker, who is seated on the left with his Oberlin College baseball team in 1882. Two years later, he and his brother Weldy, pictured up top, became the first openly black men in the major leagues before a strict racial barrier separated white and black players until 1947. If you're wondering about Moses Fleetwood Walker's position, he was a barehanded catcher who suffered repeated injuries during his single season with the Toledo Blue Stockings. During the 1880s, baseball cards often depicted players catching the ball as opposed to holding a bat because fielding and not hitting was arguably the game's most challenging aspect. Also worth noting, the organizers of professional baseball characterized the sport as manly, and in the late 1880s, fielders endured countless broken fingers for fear of being labeled girly if they wore a glove. That takes me to Vassar College, an all-women's university which organized a baseball team in 1866 called the Resolutes. Polite society did not approve of young women wearing what we would call workout clothes during outdoor exercise, and others in polite society regarded baseball as too vulgar and too violent for a respectable young woman. Two years later, parents' concerns over the safety of baseball led to the team's disbanding. In 1877, legendary pitcher Albert G. Spaulding of the Chicago White Stockings did something significant. He used a glove to protect his hand, and that simple act lessened the stigma associated with gloves. The advent of overhand pitching in 1884 also fueled the adoption of gloves because the ball reached home plate so much faster than it had before, which required both umpires and catchers to stand closer to the batter. As the game speeded up, so too did the number of broken fingers. Unsurprisingly, catchers were the first fielders to adopt protective equipment such as masks, gloves, and chest protectors. This illustration from Harper's Magazine in 1885 depicts star catcher Buck Ewing sliding headfirst into home base. Sliding in 1885 was brand new, and it thrilled fans. Notice the catcher. He's the only player wearing a glove. Well, over the next five years, ball players increasingly donned gloves. After all, a player's defensive skills contributed to team success. By 1888, it had become far more common to see gloves. Entrepreneur Albert Spalding not only helped popularize fielding gloves as a player, he saw the profits to be earned from the sale of sporting goods. His official guides included advertisements for masks, jock straps, baseball, sliding pads, and gloves. Not everyone jumped at the chance to use the new equipment. Star second baseman Bid McPhee awed spectators with his defensive skills, and he led the majors in fielding percentage during his long career, and he did his fielding barehanded between 1882 and 1895. Speaking to the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1890, he said, the glove business has gone a little too far. True, hot hit balls do sting a little at the opening of the season, but after you get used to it, there is no trouble on that score. McPhee was the last barehanded fielder, and from 1880 to the present day, we have seen a progressive decline in the number of fielding errors per game per team. Today, we marvel at the way players use their leather gloves in spectacular defensive plays. In 1885, barehanded fielding was a great spectacle and one reason to visit the ballpark. If you like this video, there are more like it on this channel, and thanks for watching.