Clipping:A retrospective on the introduction of the chest protector
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| Date | Saturday, November 1, 1890 |
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| Text | This most useful piece of base ball paraphernalia had a hard time getting a foothold. The catchers were slow in adopting it, and the spectators at first guyed it as baby-play. Clements, the great catcher of the Philadelphia League team, was the first to wear a catcher's protector in a game before a Cincinnati crowd. He was then back-stopping Jersey Bakely [sic] with the Keystone Unions, of Philadelphia, in 1884. Considerable fun was made of the protector, and the writer distinctly remembers that it was made the subject of adverse newspaper comment by one of the best base ball authorities in America. Now it is different. A catcher's protector is of as much importance to a back stop as are his mask and gloves. In other days a visitor to the dressing room of a ball team when the players were getting ready for a game did not need to ask who were the catchers. He could tell them by the black and blue spots that appeared on various parts of their anatomy, the result of hard thumps from unruly foul tips. The protector, mask and padded gloves have made the life of a catcher a bed of roses to what it used to be. The Sporting Life November 1, 1890, quoting the Cincinnati Enquirer. [N.B. No comment appears in the game accounts in the Enquirer or Commercial.] |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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