:Joe Gunson

{{Infobox baseball biography

|name=Joe Gunson

|position=Catcher

|image=Joe Gunson.jpg

|bats=Right

|throws=Right

|birth_date={{Birth date|1863|3|23|mf=y}}

|birth_place=Philadelphia

|death_date={{death date and age|1942|11|15|1863|3|23}}

|death_place=Philadelphia

|debutleague = MLB

|debutdate=June 14

|debutyear={{Baseball year|1884}}

|debutteam=Washington Nationals

|finalleague = MLB

|finaldate=September 18

|finalyear={{Baseball year|1893}}

|finalteam=Cleveland Spiders

|statleague = MLB

|stat1label=Batting average

|stat1value=.211

|stat2label=Home runs

|stat2value=0

|stat3label=Runs scored

|stat3value=96

|teams=

}}

Joseph Brook Gunson (March 23, 1863 – November 15, 1942) was a Major League Baseball catcher between {{Baseball year|1884}} and {{Baseball year|1893}}.

Biography

Born in Philadelphia, Gunson played for the Cleveland Spiders, Washington Nationals, Kansas City Cowboys, Baltimore Orioles, and St. Louis Browns from 1884 to 1893. He is sometimes credited with creating the first catcher's mitt when he was trying to play through an 1888 finger injury. Though Gunson was young and did not need the money, Jim Manning was going to help him patent it once Manning returned from a summer baseball tour. Gunson said that he told some other players about the glove and that many other players began using such a mitt before Manning came home.{{cite news|title=First catcher's mit (sic) moulded 49 years ago|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/66285929/|work=Shamokin News-Dispatch|date=July 15, 1937|language=en}}

Gunson died at his Philadelphia home in 1942.{{cite news|title=Death claims mitt inventor|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/12417676/|work=The Record-Argus|date=November 16, 1942}}