ditto, you old goat -i didn't make that up it's a long standing baseball term- almost older than you even.
and how you get that i don't think catchers affect the pitching staff from that is a long strange trip. please don't put words in my mouth.
Catchers are expected to take their lumps without grumbling. But the early efforts of catchers to protect themselves met with a lot of flak. A typical reaction came from the crowd at the Polo Grounds when baseball's New York Giants opened the 1907 season against the Philadelphia Phillies. As the Giants took the field, star catcher Roger Bresnahan looked more like a goaltender than a backstop when he squatted behind the plate in a pair of thickly upholstered shin guards.
It was the first time a catcher had dared to don the protective gear in open view and the crowd's reaction came as quick as a foul tip and just as nasty.
"Spectators howled with delight when a foul tip in the fifth inning rapped the protectors sharply," reported The New York Times. Bresnahan, more concerned about his livelihood than remarks about his manliness, ignored the insults from fans and foes.
Bresnahan's shin guards were the final pieces of the catcher's armor, following the glove, mask and chest protector. This kit was lovingly dubbed "the tools of ignorance" by Herold "Muddy" Ruel, a lawyer turned backstop who caught for greats like Walter Johnson with the Washington Senators in the 1920s. Ruel probably would have stayed a mouthpiece if he'd caught in the late 1860s. The first piece of protection for catchers, a rubber mouth protector, dates to that era, purloined perhaps from the sport of bareknuckles boxing.