Showing posts with label 1962 John Sain Spinner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1962 John Sain Spinner. Show all posts

Friday, July 20, 2012

Postcard Sales "Pitch"

Here's an interesting card in my collection:


Johnny Sain demonstrates how to use a device to improve a person's pitching grips. Sain sold the product himself; this is a postcard and ordering information is on the back:


While it looks like a baseball that's been placed on an awl, it was available for purchase ($5.25 including shipping) to anybody who wanted one.

This postcard has been approximated as being issued in 1962. Sain served as the Yankees' pitching coach under Ralph Houk from 1961-'63, so this postcard was definitely from that time frame, and the lack of a ZIP code in the address (introduced in 1963) indicates that as well. In the book Ball Four, Jim Bouton explains that Sain was a great coach when it came to the mechanics of pitching, so maybe he was on to something when it came to this.