Page:America's National Game (1911).djvu/509

 wire mask I had ever seen. This mask had been invented and patented by Mr. Fred W. Thayer, a Harvard player, now a prominent lawyer of Boston. Like other protective innovations at that stage of the game, it was not at first well received by professionals. Our catcher, James White, was urged to try it, and after some coaxing consented. I pitched him a few balls, some of which he missed, and finally, becoming disgusted at being unable to see the ball readily, he tore off the mask and, hurling it toward the bench, went on without it.

This wire mask, with certain modifications, is the same that has been used by catchers ever since.

In June, 1908, the New York World had the following version of the introduction of the mask:

"Very few, even of the old-time Base Ball fans, could tell who had the distinction of being the first player to don a Base Ball mask. Dr. Harry Thatcher, of Dexter, Me., at that time a resident of Bangor, is the man, and the mask was invented by a Boston man and a captain of the Harvard Base Ball nine.

"It was way back in the '70s that the Base Ball mask was first invented. The national game was a rather crude affair compared with what it is now, but the principles of the game were about the same and the players of those early days realized the troubles of the man behind the bat. At that time catcher's and first baseman's mitts were unheard-of things, and those players caught the ball bare-handed.

"It was a few years prior to 1878 that Fred Thayer, of Boston, at that time a player on the Harvard nine, realized the necessity of a covering for the face of the catcher in a Base Ball game. He set about to see what he could do in that way, and the result was a Base Ball mask. It had its beginning then.

"When Mr. Thayer had a mask which he thought would answer its purpose, he introduced it in the games which the Harvard nine was playing at that time and of which he was captain and third baseman. Harry Thatcher was 'the man behind the bat' on Captain Thayer's team, and it fell to him to don the mask for the first time.

"It is said that Dr, Thatcher did not take to the idea very