Quote:
Originally Posted by robw1959
Some have speculated that he decided to pose for a camera shot of him swinging the bat while on the pitcher's mound because he started his career as a pitcher. I get that, but yet Lou Gehrig is also swinging his bat on the mound on his two '33 Goudey cards.
In the absence of any factual information, my best guess is that Yankee outfielders of that era improved their fielding skills when Ruth and Gehrig hit baseballs to them from the pitcher's mound during batting practice. Fences were pretty far from home plate back then (typically 450' or more), so maybe those outfielders could gain quicker reaction times when tracking those balls?
More information would be appreciated, because it is a bit of an oddity to see a batter swinging from the pitcher's mound on a baseball card.
|
Are you sure that is a pitching mound? Doesn't, and never, looked like it to me. Always thought it was maybe supposed to be like an on-deck area, sort of as in the above photo someone posted that shows the actual photo supposedly used as a basis for the image on the Goudey card. In fact, I would think that swinging a bat on a mound could actually be dangerous. With the normal stride one takes when swinging, your front foot could come down on a strange angle or an uneven area of the mound, and actually cause a fall or maybe even worse. Also, if that is supposed to be a mound, where's the pitching rubber? And lastly, if it was a mound, wouldn't the main shadow show more of a curvature and drop-off at the edge. It actually looks more like he's standing in a somewhat squared area of sand/dirt, not a mound at all.