Barehanded baseball

[@FDLrick]

Buck Ewing, 1st catcher to enter the HOF. I believe he was the first pro player to use a mask. He was considered a gentleman and the players on all teams respected him. Buck could play every base, and could do it all. His 1888 N29 card in PSA 6 centered with eye appeal, is one card in my collection I'll never part with. They have gone up in value since I purchased it back about 10 years ago. $700 was the going price back then.

[@Magravated]

"Openly black" ??? 🤣🤣🤣 THAT made my day! My dad played ball back during the great depression 1930's and 40's). His glove didn't have any padding on the palm of the hand, only on the fingers, too much actually. He said that some guys would take raw hamburger and put it on the palm of their hand, under the glove, especially when it was cold outside. He was in Illinois, so I'm sure he used it, at least, all spring. Anyhow, he tried to get me to use it in my girls softball league because my glove was "too new" as he said. That was a hard "NO" on my part and I payed for it. I heard about the importance of softening new gloves the whole way home. Later in life, I got a similar lecture on playing golf with rings on. Thanks Dad!

[@robertt9342]

Did the clove have a leather palm? I had a modern glove that had no palm padding aside from the single layer of leather on the palm.

[@Magravated]

@@robertt9342 Yes it did but the only padding was for the fingers. There was nothing but the back of the leather on the palm. It sucked. I think there was only one set of laces around the middle of the fingers if I remember right. I think my brother got it.

[@doo2749]

I think he said that because its theorized that many baseball greats from back then were white passing black men

[@Monkerey]

"Openly black" referred to the skin colour

[@Magravated]

@@Monkerey I know. It was the "openly" part that made me laugh. I love ridiculous humor. I'm a huge Monty Python fan. Sorry if it offended anyone. 🤙🏼

[@kylenclarke240]

Very informative. Crazy how far we have come. Thanks again for another great one

[@christophermund5977]

I love the beginning footage. The grounds of Ft. Trumbull! The vintage team that I used to play with had a few matches at that beautiful location.

[@larrygreene6681]

Underrated KZbinr

[@MrChinesename]

Dude said “openly black” … like being black is like being a queer or something.. he’s rated perfectly

[@cappy2282]

​​@@MrChinesename Well, I'm sure there were players before him that denied being black (or downplayed it) The fact that u somehow found this offensive tells us all that "you're a douche who assumes racism before using his very small brain" (your comment has zero thumbs up...and its rated perfectly)

[@jayjay1063]

ur not KZbin bro stop faking

[@andrewthompson7562]

Hi KZbin

[@govdave007]

100% agree

[@superandy89]

This channel will go high order by the 2022 World Series

[@snerdterguson]

When I was a kid, I grew up near Troy, NY which was home of the Troy Haymakers Baseball Club in the 1800s. I believe theyeventually became the NY Giants. They used to have games every once in a while when I was growing up, where they would play this style of baseball. Only saw it once, but I remember this king you have to be crazy to be the catcher.

[@timrobinson5626]

I have seen vintage baseball played in Hobart Indiana a team called the Grinders a friend and i saw them play several times it's really great to see how the game was played way back then and if any of you love baseball and baseball history if you get a chance to see a game played like this go and check it out it's really fun to watch and a bit of a culture shock when you do see it

[@csnide6702]

I've played the Grinders many times ---- great bunch of guys ---- " clockwork defense... !"

[@Bc232klm]

Finally youtube suggested something amazing!

[@compass5507]

When I played HS ball, I would play pepper bare-handed. It definitely increased my focus on fielding a ball, and helped improve my performance as an infielder.

[@procussionaire]

Very cool video. Thank you!

[@zac5855]

as someone who played 15 years of cricket where our version of a catcher (“wicket-keeper”) is the only fielder permitted to wear gloves, I can back up the words of Mr McPhee where he says your hands get used to it by the end of a season. There is also a slightly different catching technique where you want your hands to go with the momentum of the ball and “give” to lessen the impact of the hard ball and reduce the ball bouncing out. I will say most of my fingers are no longer straight. No real loss of movement, but they’re not much to look at. a fielding glove is definitely the smarter play.

[@flamingfrancis]

That technique of "cushioning" the impact of the ball on the bare hand is referred to as having "soft hands". It is still coached to kids in modern day baseball and some cricket coaches that have baseball knowledge will demonstrate it to cricket juniors. as it also assists with the smoothness of the transfer for the return distance throw.

[@har234908234]

As someone who played cricket for 7 years (with a ball just as hard) and don't know anyone who broke a finger and only the equivalent of catcher uses gloves (with no "pocket"). I'm sure it's happened but it's definitely rare. Technique is important... "2B Hengle" at 3:51 showing how not to do it - keep your thumbs or pinkies together and the fingers more perpendicular to the path of the ball! Respect to the catchers and first baseman of the day however.

[@brennanroy7842]

The broken fingers likely came from thrown balls to infielders rather than batted balls. There is no first baseman in cricket that has to catch a laser from third base.

[@har234908234]

​@@brennanroy7842 I don't know about that... The most risk came from a laser from third would be an irregular short hop. I'd think it more likely that fingers were broke in simultaneous catch to tag events. Who knows? I'd think that most of the throws of the day would be 'careful' - a shortstop now doesn't rocket the ball to second from 15ft. You throw what you think gets the job done without making errors. Home plate would be a different story and there's never been a dispute about the courage of catchers! Not to get too into the weeds in cricket but when the batsmen choose to run, they can be run out using either set of stumps. Run outs happen from bad calls from either of the two batsmen. As a coach once said to us: "The calls are YES and NO... not Yes. No. Shit. Sorry!" The opportunity for the run out can happen at either end. The wicket keeper has gloves, but you've got nothing if your 'manning the stumps' at the 'bowler's end'.

[@nancymilawski1048]

⁹ⁿ⁹

[@scottthomas3672]

The only way to play. Had the honor to play in the team in the first video. Huzzah!!

[@danaxtell2367]

Tony Mullane was a barehanded ambidextrous pitcher in the 1880s. Batters didn't know which arm he would use until he started his wind up. (Coincidentally, Moses Fleetwood Walker caught for him.) The last-second arm change would make the game more interesting today, now that there are several switch pitchers in the pipeline. The unfortunate Pat Venditte Rule in 2008 prohibits any arm change during an at-bat. Pat could switch his gloved hand in a half second, so it would have been great to seem him work under the original rules, even with a moment for a moving the glove.

[@charlessturge4911]

Worth noting that cricket maintains, other than the wicket keeper, entirely bare handed fielding.

[@HannahRoot55]

Sturgeon

[@TheJohnnyCalifornia]

150 years ago, working class people from farmhands to railway workers to millers used their hands far more and far more roughly than we do today. Back then people would build their own houses with wood they cut with hand saws. They didn't need gloves.

[@HannahRoot55]

Lol

[@matthewsimpson1268]

Great video!!

[@ultimatescapebro]

This was very cool! Thanks for making this video I just subbed :)

[@johnsmithSongbird]

I can only imagine baseball in 1900 and how it came to be today. I am 68 but if in I could go back to my childhood days in 1960's I might find a good youth league and give it a better try. We were not really poor but I didn't try hard enough babe Ruth and Hank arron was my baseball hero I liked church softball

[@nitedreamer23]

It would've been some sight to see a barehanded first baseman attempt a catch from O'Neill Cruz 🤣.

[@mattmunn71]

Interesting video. For those interested in how exciting bare handed fielding is try watching a few cricket "best catches" videos. Both baseball and cricket are great games but nothing beats a test match going deep into the 5th day, even if it ends in a draw.

[@vinceemery5943]

Nah cricket is boring

[@flamingfrancis]

Absolutely correct. As with witnessing a great spreadeagled diving catch in the outfield you will often find very similar in elite international cricket. Baseball followers would find it hard to believe some of those close in catches, especially at say, first slip which is comparable to a catcher taking a fine foul tip but without a glove. People who find either game boring etc are usually so engrossed in their own sport that they do not look outside of tthat sport for skills, strategies etc.

[@jamesl2702]

1:26 "...became the first openly black men..." 😂😂😂 "OPENLY black" 😂 Like it was a total shock to all of their team mates when they showed up to training one afternoon as black dudes. Not starting an argument or anything I just found that really really funny

[@decker528]

There were a few black players who passed as white or other races

[@jamesl2702]

@@decker528 for sure but not these guys haha

[@decker528]

@@jamesl2702 nope. They were "openly" black. No one would have known if they'd just kept their mouths shut and they could have kept on playing

[@anthonycaruso8443]

It is very funny.Many blacks did not have black features,and simlpy said they were something else

[@olivermahon9509]

Same guy been pitching Southpaw for near 9 seasons before he admitted he was "openly" left-handed. All that time we thought he was just resting his right arm a lot.

[@MP-zf7kg]

My Dad played baseball barehanded. He had also played high school basketball on an outdoor court. He grew up in Depression-era South, which you can maybe compare to present-day Somalia.

[@mandospence]

I roll my eyes at the way they shift fielders around these days. A hundred years from now they’ll laugh about how strange it was before defensive shifting was normal.

[@gus473]

👍🏼 Have really enjoyed your videos recently! The only suggestion I could offer is to up your audio game a bit. You speak well, but that mic makes you sound "tinny." Love the content (especially the "hair" video)! 😎✌🏼

[@danielnewman3441]

Oh If I was born a century earlier I would be 17 in 1885 watching a bare handed game.

[@csnide6702]

you can still see them today .... ! get out there ... !

[@rogertayloRRR]

I like the wording "openly black player". Always heard ruth was part black

[@HankFinkle11]

You can retire a batter now after dropping a ball?

[@tissuepaper9962]

You misunderstand. In vintage baseball it's still an automatic out if you catch the ball after one bounce.

[@tomitstube]

the early gloves only protected the hand, it didn't really help with fielding, that changed with webbing between the thumb and index finger, introduced to mlb in 1920. with that invent players gained an advantage fielding, now able to field a ball with one hand, it gave them much more range in the field.

[@petergeyer7584]

Similar in many ways to the adoption of protective equipment in other sports like football and hockey.

[@bim-ska-la-bim4433]

Great work - thanks so much

[@Mike-t7l2g]

Great stuff!

[@MFPhoto1]

All this talk about one's manhood being questioned for wearing a glove reminds me of the 1960's when players' were considered less than manly if they wore some sort of head protection when batting. Various type of helmets were used, as were a hard skullcap worn under the regular cap. But eventually the idea of a batting helmet caught on, and it is now mandatory. I can't imagine any of today's players being willing to bat without one.

[@TuberOnTheLoose]

The lack of gloves surely contributed to the higher batting averages of the early players. Outs we now consider routine would have easily found their way through the infield back then.

[@donavonzerbest9530]

2:11 far right- is that ron Swanson?

[@staciemohler4624]

2:48 the guy from the basketball awesome

[@luiszuluaga6575]

Awesome facts ✌🏼😃

[@chriss5299]

Fred Pfefer was the last player not to wear a glove, not Bid

[@Billiam43]

i like how the white sox were called the white stokings

[@flamingfrancis]

The White Stockings were the former name of the Cubs...AJ Spalding was Manager there 1876-77

[@joeo4496]

150+ years later and they still changing the ball

[@johnlamberti4424]

Moses fleetwood was the first black ballplayer, not jackie robinson

[@johnrohde5510]

Bare-handed fielding still happens in cricket.

[@MacMamba8]

Keep going

[@matthewstorer8236]

At 1:29 when you said "openly" black, what do you mean?

[@HannahRoot55]

Matt

[@jimfrankovich2339]

My son plays baseball. When we play catch I don't use a glove. This kinda blew away the rest of the boys. They were like doesn't that hurt. I said no if you know how to catch a ball. You have to feel contact and then give with it. Thus lessening the impact. I laugh at guys who go out and buy these fancy gloves. You really don't need it.

[@HannahRoot55]

Jim

[@sentimentalbloke185]

Cricketers do it all the time, no problems. A cricket ball weighs between 5.5 oz (155.9 g) and 5.75 oz (163 g), and measures between 8.81 inches (22.4 cm) and 9 in (22.9 cm) in circumference. A baseball weighs between 5 oz (142g) and to 5.25 oz. (149 g), and measures between 9 in (22.9 cm) and 9.25 inches (23.5 cm) in circumference.

[@HannahRoot55]

Sen

[@flamingfrancis]

Yes, those are the manufacturers' specifications and requirements of the Standard. But...consider these. Cricketers often say the ball is "harder". Perhaps so because the ball enters a game with the coatings of lacquer intact whereas baseballs are required to have their sheen removed using a specified "mud" . The seam pattern on a baseball is longer than a cricket ball (four piece / two hemispheres / "six stitcher". and it has a slightly less raised seam. Cricket balls are changed much less frequently than a baseball so over the course of a game the baseball would be harder to stop....

[@sentimentalbloke185]

@@flamingfrancis codswallop. Try catching a cricket ball in the slips with bare hands when a batsman has edged a bowler sending them down at 145km/h.

[@robertt9342]

Guarantee that the bounce rule was there on purpose to reduce injury.

[@HannahRoot55]

Rob

[@joemckim1183]

The rules seems to be basically slow pitch softball but with a baseball instead and no gloves for fielding. I don't think that fielding without a glove is that smart though.

[@celiafaulkner287]

hi

[@Woodly6000plays]

Bro the American league is called the American league but they have a team in Toronto more like the Canadian league

[@HannahRoot55]

Woody

[@dspsblyuth]

Openly black?

[@Diesel257]

"Openly Black" 😂

[@imannonymous7707]

Um, ouch!

[@MH3GL]

1882 and 20% of the team was black??? 🤔

[@TheBatugan77]

Then came Cap Anson. If there was a HOF for asshats...

[@billtisch3698]

"Openly black." Heaven knows how many others hadn't come out yet.

[@tissuepaper9962]

@@billtisch3698 you know that there literally were "closeted" black people back then, right? It was called "passing". Even if one of your great grandparents was black and every other person who married into your genealogy since then was white (i.e. you look white), you were considered black. That is, unless you could hide that fact from people by taking advantage of fallible record keeping and keeping your mouth shut. There is a famous example of a Vaudeville singer who basically lost his fame overnight when it came out that he had black ancestry.

[@billtisch3698]

@@tissuepaper9962 I do remember that now. It just struck me as an odd choice of description. J. Edgar Hoover was a conspicuous example.

[@hmu958]

@@billtisch3698 pride month rubbing off

[@justinboocola2355]

If I didn't have a glove I would have got hit in the face by a ball I pitched to my nephew

[@HannahRoot55]

Hey 👋

[@justinboocola2355]

@@HannahRoot55 greetings

[@Dogman36]

amazing video whats openly black mean

[@thebaseballprofessor]

I probably should not have said "openly black" because it's confusing. New research demonstrates that William Edward White played professional baseball before the Walker brothers. He passed for white. sabr.org/latest/baseballs-secret-pioneer-william-edward-white/

[@daveabbott]

So, a bit like cricket then, but played over large parts of the world with a slightly bigger, heavier and harder ball, only the wicket-keeper allowed gloves. Pffft.

[@HannahRoot55]

Abbott

[@rogercarlson6300]

Wiffle ball is the new manly sport! no gloves!

[@joemckim1183]

You're also catching a wiffle ball instead of a baseball, that is slightly easier on the hands.

[@hbsupreme1499]

Nah

[@flrpitflrp1965]

One question?. What does openly black mean?. I have never heard this term. I can understand openly gay, because it could be hidden. But skin color is just there.

[@thebaseballprofessor]

I probably should not have said "openly black" because it's confusing. New research demonstrates that William Edward White played professional baseball before the Walker brothers. He passed for white. sabr.org/latest/baseballs-secret-pioneer-william-edward-white/

[@TerryBollea1]

Its called Cricket🤦

[@molemarden5188]

Play cricket.only player with gloves is the wicket keeper

[@MrChinesename]

“Openly black” .. what the hell does that mean? Do black people usually hide that fact in the closet??

[@thebaseballprofessor]

I probably should not have said "openly black" because it's confusing. New research demonstrates that William Edward White played professional baseball before the Walker brothers. He passed for white. sabr.org/latest/baseballs-secret-pioneer-william-edward-white/

[@ThekiBoran]

Women should play baseball, not softball.

[@puckerings]

They should play whatever they want to.

[@ThekiBoran]

@@puckerings Wrong.

[@trolojolo6178]

@@ThekiBoran they have stick to softball. No baseball for woman's, end of topic.

[@ThekiBoran]

@@trolojolo6178 Not end of topic but end of you.

[@hmu958]

Openly black? Lol. My man pride agenda has got you. Good stuff regardless.

[@brucefranklin1317]

Very very stupid is barehanded baseball

[@HannahRoot55]

Franklin

[@rastafari4932]

very informative but the narrator failed to mention that baseball is a direct offspring of cricket...today the fundamentals, ball, bat, innings and runs, remains the common denominator of both games...

[@thebaseballprofessor]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/g17Cl2ychremj6c

[@NathansWargames]

Baseball comes from rounders not Cricket.

[@thebaseballprofessor]

@@NathansWargames It comes from both field games. Cricketers developed a set of terms you might recognize: infield, outfield, innings, outs, umpires, runs, etc.

[@rastafari4932]

@@NathansWargames do a thorough research and you’ll see the origins…just as US “football” derived from “rugby”, baseball derived from cricket…perhaps the new variant was called “rounders” before becoming baseball, nonetheless, cricket is baseball’s ancestor…

[@thebaseballprofessor]

@@rastafari4932 kzbin.info/www/bejne/g17Cl2ychremj6c