Leslie Mann was born on November 18, 1893 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He stayed in Lincoln throughout his childhood, attending Lincoln High School. While in high school, Mann lettered and made all-state in three sports. Along with being incredibly talented in these three sports, which were basketball, baseball, and football, Mann was also a track star in high school.

Mann attended Springfield College from 1911 to 1913 where he maintained his exceptional football and baseball ability. Mann became the first freshman to make varsity football at the college. He is most well-known for his football performance against Jim Thorpe and the Carilse Indians, as Mann scored 18 of his team’s 24 points and competed with Thorpe, who said that “Never have I had such an opponent in a game”. Here, it is clear that Mann was not only the star of his team, but he was also one of the best football players in the country. Mann is considered one of the greatest athletes to ever attend Springfield College, which was shown by the fact Mann was one of the first five men inducted into the Springfield College Athletic Hall of Fame, alongside James Naismith and Alonzo Stagg. Being inducted with such notable figures and accomplished athletes shows just how important Mann’s athletic achievements were to Springfield College.

Leslie Mann didn’t finish college originally because he was signed to the Boston Braves. Because of this, one could surmise that the creation of his lantern slides could have contributed towards his degree. Mann played for the Braves, Cubs, Cardinals, Reds, and Giants over the course of his career and was pretty much an average baseball player, with a career batting average of .282. Mann was a member of the 1914 Miracle Boston Braves team, which came back from last place halfway through the season and eventually won the World Series.

Leslie Mann’s contributions to baseball while playing and after retiring are what makes him so important. Along with creating these lantern slides which show some of the important elements and techniques related to the game of baseball, Mann also wrote books about baseball and created the first baseball school. He enlisted the help of some of the best players in his time period to be teachers at the school, including Rogers Hornsby and Grover Alexander. His stress of fundamentals, both in teaching classes and in books, was very important and helpful to players in developing their baseball skills. Mann was also a coach of many different sports and teams throughout his life after retiring from baseball.

Leslie Mann is also well-known for being one of the major contributors to spreading baseball across the globe. Mann lived in the era where baseball was beginning to become popular in the United States, and he aimed to spread that popularity by adding baseball to the Olympics. He was eventually able to introduce baseball to the Olympics which helped spread the game of baseball to other areas of the world. Spreading the game only helped increase the popularity of the sport, giving it a deeper social and cultural significance.

Because of the phenomenal contributions Mann made to baseball, it is a surprise that he is not more of a household name today. Without Mann’s influence, the popularity of baseball may never have accelerated into what it is today since he really helped spread the sport across the world.

During the 1920’s, the equipment, stadiums, and social impact and importance of baseball were much different. However, the 1920’s also marked an important transition in baseball, as the way the sport was being played began to change dramatically which helped increase the popularity of baseball. From 1900 to 1920, baseball was characterized as being a low scoring defensive sport, also known as the Deadball Era. Many of the players in this era were known for their pitching or fielding dominance, while there were very few home runs and runs scored per game. For example, Heinie Groh of the Cincinnati Reds is considered the best third baseman of his time period because of his defensive performance. However, in the 1920’s, Babe Ruth emerged as a power hitter, beginning to change the way that baseball was played. The New York Yankees and Ruth transformed baseball, and the public interest in baseball also increased significantly. People became much more interested in baseball because of the emergence of many power hitters, like Ruth and Rogers Hornsby, one of Leslie Mann’s teammates. For example, because of Ruth, the attendance of New York Yankees games actually doubled, and at the time, the Yankees and New York Giants were sharing a stadium. The Giants actually told the Yankees to find a new stadium because of their frustration towards the Yankees much higher level of attendance to their games. Between 1918 and 1921, the amount of home runs hit more than tripled, and this exciting live ball era created much more interest in baseball for fans of the game. Along with this change in how baseball was played, the way the United States operated also changed dramatically. People became more interested in entertainment and leisure activities, like baseball, and the media grew tremendously, like the growth of the radio and newspapers. Having these things made it easier for people to actually get invested in baseball.

The 1920’s in baseball also experienced a huge controversy; throwing the spitball. The spitball was a popular baseball pitching type where the ball is altered by the application of saliva. This technique alters the weight on the ball, making it move towards home plate in an untypical way, which allowed many pitchers to be very successful and contributed to the Deadball Era. However, the spitball was banned from being thrown in this era, but the 1920’s marks an interesting time period because many pitchers who were already throwing the spitball were allowed to continuing throwing the spitball throughout the rest of their career even though it was banned. The 1920’s therefore represents the transition away from the spitball. Many of the pitchers included in Mann’s slides, like Bill Doak, experienced success because of the spitball, as it was one of the most important elements of the game of baseball before the 1920’s. This change marked not only a move to create a cleaner game of baseball, but it was also to increase the amount of hits in baseball since the spitball was incredibly difficult to hit. Increasing the amount of hits and home runs would only skyrocket the attendance to baseball games and the interest people had in baseball. It almost appears, therefore, that the 1920’s were the first era in baseball where monetary profit became a concern.

During the 1920’s, the equipment was much different for players than it is today. For example, players were not required to wear helmets during this time period. This caused a lot of injuries and deaths. Austin McHenry, a player for the St. Louis Cardinals, was beaned by a pitch and developed a brain tumor a few years later. Though this tumor wasn’t necessarily because of the beaning, McHenry and many other people believed it played a factor. The gloves players used were also much different. Bill Doak, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, created the glove that is still used today, which enlarged the size of the thumb hole and made it the same size as the hole for the first finger. These gloves began to be sold in the early 1920’s.

In the 1920’s, the stadiums began to be developed to show similarities to stadiums in baseball today. There were some advertisements posted on the walls in the outfield, most notably the Reds stadium which had many advertisements. However, because baseball was just beginning to become popular, some stadiums, like the Cardinals, had a lot of open space with few advertisements. Because of the increase in popularity of baseball in the 1920’s, teams began to develop their stadiums to better suit this increased popularity, but a lot of the fields seen in Mann’s slides had not yet been developed fully.

Overall, baseball in the 1920’s was a lot different than it is today. However, a closer look at Leslie Mann’s lantern slides and the history of baseball shows that the 1920’s marked an important transition in baseball, as the Deadball Era ended and the popularity and social and cultural significance of the sport grew tremendously.

Works Cited

"Babe Ruth's Impact on the Game of Baseball." Babe Ruth Central, https://www.baberuthcentral.com/babesimpact/babe-ruths-legacy/babe-ruths-impact-on-the-game-of-baseball/. Accessed 12 Dec. 2017.

Wildes, Ken. "Letter to Harold Lynch." 31 Oct. 1972. https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15370coll2/id/21703/rec/1. Accessed 26 Jan. 2019.

Lecomte, Grace, and Clyde E. Cole. "Les Mann of Springfield." Portrait of a Champion, https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15370coll2/id/8959. Accessed 26 January 2018.

Mann Jr, Leslie. "Leslie Mann Jr. Letter to Harold G. Lynch." 3 Jan. 1974. https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15370coll2/id/21714. Accessed 26 January 2018.

"Springfield College Hall-of-Fame Links Great Athletes." L Club of Lincoln High School Red and Black Newsletter, 1973, https://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15370coll2/id/21702. Accessed 26 Jan. 2018.

Stromberg, Joseph. "How Babe Ruth Changed Baseball." Smithsonian, 16 Aug. 2011, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/how-babe-ruth-changed-baseball-51810018/. Accessed 12 Dec. 2017.

Trueblood, Matt. "MLB Power Rankings: 5 Best Hitters from Each Baseball 'Era'." Bleacher Report, 1 Sept. 2011, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/826907-mlb-power-rankings-5-best-hitters-from-each-baseball-era#slide0. Accessed 12 Dec. 2017.

- Written by Daniel Hurlburt in December 2017