Cabinet Photos

[GeoPoto]

[QUOTE=Jobu;2167123]Nice! I'll add the full Monte (and toss in a Fan Craze too).

(Sorry, no cabinet, but) This Cross played with Monte, although they are not related -- his Cross family had better hair!

Lafayette N. "Lave" Cross. Third baseman/catcher with the Washington Senators in 1906-1907. 2,651 hits, 47 home runs, and 303 stolen bases in 21 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Louisville Colonels in 1887-1888. In 1894 with the Philadelphia Phillies he had one of his most productive seasons as he posted a .424 OBP with 128 runs scored and 132 RBI's in 593 plate appearances. At retirement in 1907, he ranked fifth in MLB history in hits and runs batted in. He captained the Philadelphia Athletics teams which captured two of the first five AL pennants.

An excerpt from Lave Cross' SABR biography surfaces his role in fixing position player glove options: Yet nothing distinguished Cross, as he transitioned to third base, more than the catcher’s mitt he brought with him. A moment from a July 7 (1894) match at Pittsburgh is illustrative: “Cross saw [a liner off the bat of Jake Stenzel] coming and threw up his hand, which was protected by a catcher’s glove. The ball struck the pillow with so much force that Cross was knocked down, but he recovered himself in time to throw [Jake] Beckley out at second.” Cross was not the only repositioned catcher using a mitt in the infield — Boston’s Frank Connaughton and Pittsburgh’s Joe Sugden did as well — but he was easily the most prominent.

Critics called this usage “unscientific and unsightly.” NL magnates met in February 1895 and modified existing rules to permit catchers and first basemen to “wear a glove or mitt of any size, shape or weight” yet other players were “restricted to the use of a glove or mitt weighing not over ten ounces, and measuring in circumference around the palm of the hand not over fourteen inches.” Cross found a mitt within these specifications and continued to comfortably snag flies and knock down liners.

https://www.net54baseball.com/attach...1&d=1637671827