I don't Know What You're Doing, Van Lingle Mungo

I am afraid for you, Van Lingle Mungo... 'Cause what I see here is a frightening thing.

Featured above is a vintage ACME press photo from eBay, dated to Spring Training in 1937, of the infamous Dodger hurler Van Lingle Mungo performing some kind of acrobatic exercise over what looks like a camera tripod.  Via the caption attached to the reverse:

"BROOKLYN PITCHER EXERCISING.  Clearwater, Fla., Mar.7---Photo shows Van Lingle Mungo, Dodger pitcher, working out at Clearwater, Fla., where the Brooklyn Team is in spring training."

I just don't know what to think.  Is this some kind of newfangled routine popular with that decades guru exercise nuts?  Heck, did such a thing exist then?  Maybe this is the 1930's version of Pilates or some other crazy fad that has long since disappeared from our collective psyches. 

I'm hoping that this is just some-kind-of perspective camera trick because if it's not then those Dodgers of yesteryear were certifiably insane... Which, BTW, might explain the existence of the moniker "Daffiness Boys."  

Daffy indeed, eh?

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