Clipping:Baseball shoes
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| Date | Wednesday, July 10, 1889 |
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| Text | No department in base ball has made greater progress in late years than base-running and incidentally fielding, and yet one of the underlying causes is overlooked by the critics of the game and onlookers. It is a fact that the speed of our modern base-runners, and the celerity of movement of the fielders, in the major leagues, at least, is due to the modern base ball shoe, more than any other single cause. Everybody knows how much freedom of movement depends upon the foot covering. If this is so in every walk of life how much more must it apply to athletics. It is a fact that weight added to shoes impedes and reduces the speed of spring runners, and this is equally true of ball players. In former years the base ball shoe was a clumsy article of canvas and sole leather, heavy and ill-fitting. Now the base ball shoe worn by the major league players fits like a glove and is as light as human ingenuity can make it. In fact, the base ball shoe has kept up in line of progress with the ball, which is now perfect. The man who has brought about this revolution in base ball shoes is Waldo M. Claffin, of this city, whose advertisement appears in another column. Mr. Claffin, who is personally known to us as an expert in his line, is the pioneer in the improvement of base ball shoes. He made a specialty of this one article, and for years labored and experimented, until, at great expense, the shoe was brought to its present perfect condition. He expended nearly $600 alone for dies to make the shoe plates, which add so vastly to the value of this shoe, and in the direction of other improvements, too, he spent considerable money; so much in fact, that although he enjoys the sole custom of every player in the League and Association, with but three exceptions, as well be seen by the correct list of noted wearers published in another column by Mr. Claffin, he has not yet gotten back his original outlay. Mr. Claffin has been handicapped somewhat by the high price of his shoes, made necessary by the fine quality of the goods and the great care taken in their manufacture, which has enabled inferior imitations to undersell him. The superior and unrivaled Claffin shoe, however, is forcing its way into general recognition and coming into universal use. There is no good reason why major league players should monopolize these shoes. True, their large salaries enable them to pay the high price of the Claffin shoe with less concern than the lower salaried minor league players, but the latter should not let a matter of a dollar or two weight with them in the purchase of an article so necessary to their comfort and so conducive to better work in their profession, and by means of which their records and reputations can be materially bettered. In this case the best is the cheapest in the long run. All players ought to wear the Claffin shoe. |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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