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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that replays the home runs of History one day

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Speaker 1: at a time. I'm Gay Bluesier, and in this episode,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about a breakthrough addition to the sporting goods catalog,

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Speaker 1: a protective face mask that turned out to be a

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Speaker 1: game changer for baseball catchers. The day was April twelfth,

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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy seven. Harvard student James Ting became the first

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Speaker 1: known baseball player to wear a catcher's mask. The new

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Speaker 1: headgear was based on a design by Harvard team captain

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Speaker 1: Frederick Thayer. It was made from a modified fencing mask

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Speaker 1: and was meant to enable the catcher to get closer

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Speaker 1: to the plate without fear of being injured by a

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Speaker 1: ball or a bat. Despite that obvious benefit, Thayer's invention

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Speaker 1: proved a tough sell, as most baseball players and fans

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Speaker 1: considered it unmanly to wear protective gear. Baseball catchers had

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Speaker 1: a rough time during the early years of their sport.

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Speaker 1: Their position behind home plate put them directly in the

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Speaker 1: line of fire during batting. Any foul ball or bad

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Speaker 1: bounce was another potential bruise, a reality made more painful

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Speaker 1: by the player's aversion to wearing protection. In those days,

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Speaker 1: the only gear a catcher used was a rubber mouthguard

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Speaker 1: similar to that of a boxer. There was no mask,

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Speaker 1: no chess guard, no shin guards, not even a glove.

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Speaker 1: That reckless style of play led to frequent injuries, and

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Speaker 1: as a result, the career of the average catcher was

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Speaker 1: only three or four seasons. In the late eighteen sixties,

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Speaker 1: the rising popularity of the curve ball made the catcher's

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Speaker 1: job even more dangerous. Catchers were used to standing several

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Speaker 1: feet behind the late, but with a curveball, they had

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Speaker 1: to come in much closer to make the catch, greatly

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Speaker 1: increasing their odds of being struck. The change didn't go

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Speaker 1: over well with some players, which is why the Harvard

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Speaker 1: team of eighteen seventy seven had such a hard time

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Speaker 1: finding a catcher. The Crimson, as the team was called,

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Speaker 1: actually started preseason training that year without a catcher. Team

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Speaker 1: captain and third baseman Fred Thayer tried to fill the

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Speaker 1: gap by moving in James Ting from the outfield, but

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Speaker 1: Ting wasn't having it. He knew he was liable to

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Speaker 1: get his nose broken or his teeth shattered playing catcher

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Speaker 1: in the age of the curveball, and Thayer knew it too.

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Speaker 1: The team captain came across a possible solution while walking

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Speaker 1: across campus one day. He noticed that members of the

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Speaker 1: fencing team were carrying face masks on their way to practice,

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Speaker 1: and he wondered if something similar could work in baseball.

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Speaker 1: Thayer got his hands on one of the masks and

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Speaker 1: took it to a local tinsmith in Cambridge. They worked

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Speaker 1: together on the design, making changes where needed to meet

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Speaker 1: the needs of the sport. For example, the fine wire

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Speaker 1: mesh of the fencing mask was too dense for baseball,

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Speaker 1: as catchers needed to see everything on the field, not

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Speaker 1: just directly in front of them. The solution was to

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Speaker 1: replace the mesh with a series of intersecting metal bars

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Speaker 1: that were wide enough apart to see through, yet narrow

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Speaker 1: enough to stop a baseball. Thayre and the tinsmith also

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Speaker 1: added a forehead pad and a chin rest to help

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Speaker 1: absorb the impact of a ball. They are convinced ting

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Speaker 1: to try out the finished mask during practice, and when

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Speaker 1: it proved effective, he agreed to be the team's new catcher.

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Speaker 1: On April twelfth, eighteen seventy seven, Ting wore the mask

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Speaker 1: during a game in Lynn, Massachusetts. It was a cold,

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Speaker 1: windy day, but roughly three thousand people turned out to

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Speaker 1: watch the match. It wasn't a very good one, though,

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Speaker 1: ending with a score of Harvard eleven Lynn three. The

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Speaker 1: main highlight was a strong showing from James Ting. He

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Speaker 1: scored two runs, and more pressively, he made just two

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Speaker 1: errors behind the plate, which was remarkably low for the era.

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Speaker 1: The Harvard Crimson newspaper was completely won over by the

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Speaker 1: catcher's mask, writing quote, the new mask proved a complete success,

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Speaker 1: since it entirely protected face and head, and added greatly

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Speaker 1: to the confidence of the catcher, who need not feel

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Speaker 1: that he is every moment in danger of lifelong injury.

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Speaker 1: To the ingenious inventor of this mask, we are largely

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Speaker 1: indebted for the excellent playing of our new catcher, who

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Speaker 1: promised to excel the fine playing of those who have

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Speaker 1: previously held his position. But praise for the mask was

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Speaker 1: not universal. The opposing team complained the mask had given

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Speaker 1: Harvard an unfair advantage, and when the press learned of

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Speaker 1: the new device, it was largely dismissed as cowardly. One

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Speaker 1: alarmist critic leaned heavily on hyperbole, writing quote, we shall

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Speaker 1: probably soon behold the spectacle of a player sculling around

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Speaker 1: the bases with a stove funnel on his legs and

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Speaker 1: boiler iron riveted across his stomach. Other reporters mocked the mask,

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Speaker 1: calling it a rat trap, a muzzle, and a birdcage.

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Speaker 1: One sportswriter even went so far as to claim that

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Speaker 1: baseball injuries didn't actually happen. Writing for the Portland Telegram,

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Speaker 1: he said quote, there is a great deal of beastly

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Speaker 1: humbug and contrivances to protect men from things which do

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Speaker 1: not happen. There is about as much sense and putting

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Speaker 1: a lightning rod on a catcher as there is a mask.

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Speaker 1: Despite the public backlash, professional teams recognized the masks advantages

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Speaker 1: fairly quickly. Some players reached out to Thayer directly to

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Speaker 1: request a mask of their own. The interest convinced Thayer

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Speaker 1: to patent his invention the following year. By that time,

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Speaker 1: the country's leading sporting goods manufacturer, A. G. Spaulding, had

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Speaker 1: already begun selling Thayer's catching mask. In the years to come,

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Speaker 1: the company made several improvements on the design, including additional

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Speaker 1: padding and buckled straps. The only problem was Spaulding didn't

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Speaker 1: have the rights to the mask. As a result, they

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Speaker 1: are sued the company for patent infringement in eighteen eighty three,

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Speaker 1: and Spaulding was ultimately forced to pay him royalties. There

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Speaker 1: was some initial hesitation to wear the new gear, as

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Speaker 1: catchers were sometimes taunted by the crowds for hiding behind

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Speaker 1: a mask, but in the end, keeping their faces intact

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Speaker 1: proved more enticing than appeasing a few angry fans. By

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Speaker 1: the late eighteen eighties, the catcher's mask had been widely

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Speaker 1: accepted by players and fans alike, and over time other

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Speaker 1: forms of protective gear were embraced as well, including shin guards,

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Speaker 1: the chess protector, and the all important catcher's mit. As

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Speaker 1: for Thayer's prototype mask, the one James tingwore in that

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Speaker 1: first game, no one's quite sure what happened to it.

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Speaker 1: Today there are two masks that are both purported to

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Speaker 1: be the true original. One belongs to the Baseball Hall

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Speaker 1: of Fame and the other is on display in the

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Speaker 1: reading room of the Harvard Varsity Club. It's unclear which

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Speaker 1: mask is the genuine article, or maybe they're both wrong.

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Speaker 1: In the end, which mask was first is less important

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Speaker 1: than the fact that neither mask was last. Despite a

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Speaker 1: rocky start, the catcher's mask has since become a fundamental

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Speaker 1: piece of equipment from baseball. Catchers are all the more

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Speaker 1: handsome for it. I'm Gabelusier and hopefully you now know

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Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and

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Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to

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Speaker 1: get in touch by writing to this Day at iHeartMedia

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Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks to Chandler May's and Ben Hackett for

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Speaker 1: producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see

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Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another day in History

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Speaker 1: class