Man In A Cage

Man In A Cage

The game of baseball has spawned a variety of inventions over the years. Many have involved improvements in player equipment especially the baseball glove. In 1885, one of the first glove patents came from George Rawlings, the founder of Rawlings Sporting Goods, for a protective glove (Pat. # 325,968). Soon other updated versions of the fielding glove followed with nuances for the first baseman and catcher.

Not to be outdone, James Bennett, a former player in the short-lived Iron and Oil League which had teams in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and West Virginia, decided to step outside of the (batter’s) box with a radical prototype which he patented in 1904 (patent #755,209). He proposed to eliminate the catcher’s mitt altogether. He conceived of a rectangular wire frame contraption that would be fitted around the catcher. Balls thrown by the pitcher would pass through a small front metal door with hinges which would close automatically via a set of springs. The ball would then bounce off the catcher's chest protector and drop down into an opening where the catcher could retrieve the ball.

Unfortunately, as one might imagine this device severely limited a catcher’s mobility and made throwing out runners or retrieving wild pitches almost impossible. As far as is known, the catcher cage was never actually used even in any exhibition minor league games.

But that didn’t stop Bennett from inventing. The following year, he submitted a patent for a two-handed baseball glove with a connected pocket in the middle. Again, this device found no takers due to the obvious fact that the defensive player would lose valuable time transferring the ball to their throwing hand which had to be extracted from the glove.