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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ladybranch, post: 37383, member: 44&quot;]Baseball was probably started from the get-go. Baseball was **the** sport back in the late 1800s, the turn of that century. Football wasn&#039;t nearly as popular back in &quot;them thar days.&quot; What surprises me is the hat he is wearing. I haven&#039;t seen that style worn by any early baseball player/team. I had a great uncle who played what might be called today semi-pro baseball for a few years - 1890s. He had quite a collection of baseball memorabilia from the turn of the century up to the early 1950s. When he died, I had a chance at all that memorabilia and I turned it down. I have been kicking myself ever since.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]9435[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Just thought about the lack of the glove in this picture. Just about every pic of early baseball players holding a ball they also have a glove on. I wonder if this pic was taken before baseball gloves became the norm for players?</p><p><br /></p><p>I believe protection, gloves of some sort, for catchers came first and for the rest of the players later. According to the following website,</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;One of the earliest baseball glove manufacturers was New Hampshire-based Draper &amp; Maynard, which made its first padded glove for a Providence shortstop named Arthur Irwin in 1883.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>and</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Rawlings came to the forefront of glove manufacturing in 1919, when St. Louis pitcher Bill Doak went to the company with the idea of putting a web between the thumb and index finger. Known as the Bill Doak glove, it transformed the way a baseball glove was viewed: no longer as a means of protection, but as a tool.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.thepostgame.com/node/1969" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.thepostgame.com/node/1969" rel="nofollow">http://www.thepostgame.com/node/1969</a></p><p><br /></p><p>BTW, just saw the &quot;Eppie&quot; Friedman Lederer (Ann Landers) was a graduate of Morningside College.</p><p><br /></p><p>--- Susan[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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