Catcher

Today the baseball catcher is a familiar but uninspiring figure. Decked out in the so-called tools of ignorance, he stolidly goes about his duty without attracting much attention. But it wasn''t always that way, as Peter Morris shows in this lively and original study. In baseball''s early days, catchers stood a safe distance behind the batter. Then the introduction of the curveball in the 1870s le...