Christy Mathewson

At 45 years old, Christy Mathewson has this physical status:

Christopher Mathewson (August 12, 1880 – October 7, 1925), also known as "The Christian Gentleman," "Matty," and "The Gentleman's Hurler"), was a Major League right-handed pitcher who played 17 seasons with the New York Giants.

He was 6 foot 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 195 pounds (88 kg).

He was one of the most consistent pitchers in baseball history and ranked in the top ten in several key pitching categories, including wins, shutouts, and ERA.

If considering 19th-century pitchers' records, he is the only professional pitcher in history to rank in both career wins and career ERA.

Mathewson and Walter Johnson would not be able to distinguish themselves as such.

Mathewson was one of the first five members of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. Mathewson grew up in Factoryville, Pennsylvania, and began playing semiprofessional baseball when he was 14 years old.

In 1899, he appeared in the minor leagues, winning 21 games and two losses for the first time.

The next season, he pitched for the New York Giants, but he was sent back to the minors.

He eventually returned to the Giants and went on to win 373 games in his career, a National League record.

He led the Giants to victory in the 1905 World Series by pitching three shutouts.

Mathewson never pitched on Sundays due to his Christian convictions.

Mathewson served in the Chemical Warfare Service of the US Army in World War I and was accidentally exposed to chemical weapons during training.

His respiratory system was weakened by the exposure, causing him to contract tuberculosis, which he died in Saranac Lake, New York, in 1925.

Early life

Mathewson was born in Factoryville, Pennsylvania, and attended high school at Keystone Academy.

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College career

He played football, basketball, and baseball at Bucknell University, where he served as class president and played on the school's football, basketball, and baseball teams. Mathewson was also a member of Phi Gamma Delta, the Greek fraternity. He first played semi-professional baseball in 1895, when he was just 14 years old. Mathewson was asked to pitch against a competitor team in Mill City, Pennsylvania, by the manager of the Factoryville baseball team. Mathewson aided his hometown team in defeat by 19-17, but it was more his batting rather than his pitching. During his time at Bucknell, he continued to play baseball, pitching for minor league teams in Honesdale and Meridian, Pennsylvania. In 1900, Mathewson was selected to the Walter Camp All-American football team. He was a drop-kicker.

Professional football career

Mathewson played football at Keystone Academy from 1895 to 1897. In 1898, he turned pro and spent his time with the Greensburg Athletic Association as a fullback. Mathewson played fullback for the Pittsburgh Stars of the first National Football League while a member of the New York Giants. Mathewson, on the other hand, was dropped from the team in the midst of the 1902 season. According to some historians, the Giants found out that their star pitcher was risking his baseball career and ordered him to suspend, while others believe Willis Richardson, the Stars' coach, removed Mathewson because his punting abilities were hardly used, he should replace him with a local player, Shirley Ellis.

Professional baseball career

Mathewson signed up to play professional baseball with Taunton Herrings of the New England League in 1899, where he finished with a record of 2–13. He stayed on to play for the Norfolk Phenoms of the Virginia League next season. He had a 20–2 record going into the season. During that time, he continued to attend Bucknell.

The New York Giants bought his Norfolk jersey from Norfolk in July of 1900 (equivalent to $49,000 in 2021). Mathewson appeared in six games for the Giants between July and September 1900. He started one of those games and set a new record of 0–3. The Giants returned him to Norfolk and demanded their money back after being dissatisfied with his results. Mathewson was signed off the Norfolk roster later this month. Mathewson was traded to the Giants by the Reds on December 15, 1900, after Amos Rusie.

Mathewson won 373 games and lost 188 for a.665 winning percentage during his 17-year career. His career saw him post 2.13 and 79 shutouts in his career, and his 373 victories are still top-one in the National League, tied with Grover Cleveland Alexander. He had a fastball, exceptional control, and, in particular, a new pitch he called the "fadeaway" (later known in baseball as the "screwball"), which he learned from teammate Dave Williams in 1898.

This allegation is debunked by Ken Burns' documentary Baseball, in which Mathewson claimed he learned his "fadeaway" from Andrew "Rube" Foster as New York Giants boss John McGraw secretly hired Rube to tell the Giants bullpen what he knew. Many baseball historians regard this tale as apocryphal.

Mathewson was a strikeout on 247 walks in his career against just 848 walks. Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, who won 13 of the duels against Mathewson's 11, has one no-decision.

Mathewson was a good-hitting pitcher in his major league career, posting a.215 batting average (362-for-1687) with 151 runs, seven home runs, and 167 runs batted in. He was in double figures in runs batted in in ten of his 17 years in the majors, with a season-high of 20 in 1903. In 11 World Series games, he batted.281 (9-for-32) in 11.

Mathewson's stature was so strong that he was expected to be the catalyst for the Browns to win the pennant. In 1902, the Browns finished second, five games behind the Philadelphia Athletics, who finished second, finishing fifth. They told him four times what they were making with the Giants. Mathewson and Browns owner Robert Lee Hedges decided to resign as part of the two-year war between the American and National Leagues. Even though giving up a pennant meant effectively giving up a pennant, Hedges said later that ensuring the return of peace to the game was more important.

Mathewson's career began in 1900 and 1904 as a premier pitcher. Mathewson helped the Giants win their first National League championship in 1903 and a first-time appearance in the first World Series, despite having low earned run averages and winning nearly 100 games. Despite the fact that no World Series was held in 1904, the Giants captured the pennant, causing McGraw to name them as the best team in the country.

In 1905, Mathewson found it even harder. Roger Bresnahan, a catcher who had shifted to catcher, started collaborating with Mathewson, whose improved memory of hitter weaknesses paved the way for a historic season. Mathewson's pitches were guided by pinpoint control to Bresnahan's glove. Mathewson walked only 64 batters in 338 innings. He shut down eight times opposing sides, pitching complete games in a 90-minute session. Mathewson also won 31 games, with an earned run average of 1.28 and 206 strikeouts. He dominated the National League in all three categories, earning him the Triple Crown.

The Giants of Mathewson won the 1905 World Series over the Philadelphia Athletics. In game one, Mathewson was the starting pitcher, and he pitched a four-hit shutout for the victory. He pitched another four-hit shutout three days later, with the series tied 1-1. Then threw a six-hit shutout in game five two days later, clinch the Giants' series. Mathewson had three complete games without allowing a run in a span of just six days while giving up only 14 hits.

Mathewson's advantage eroded a great deal in the coming year, thanks in large part to an early-season diagnosis of diphtheria. McGraw was able to bowl more innings from him but they were wracked with hardship. Despite his 22nd-included record, his 2.97 earned run average was well above the league average of 2.62. His 1.271 walks plus hits per innings pitched, which was uncharacteristic of him, was due to an increased number of hits and walks.

Mathewson was back on top as the league's best pitcher by 1908 in 1908. He won the most games of his career, 37, as well as a 1.43 earned run average and 259 strikeouts, netting his second triple crown. He also led the league in starts, innings pitched, complete games, and shutouts, and he held hitters to an unusually low 0.827 walks per innings pitched. He also led the league in saves, racking up 5 of them in 12 relief appearances. The Giants were unable to take home the pennant due to what was later known as Merkle's Boner, an event that cost the Giants a vital game against the Chicago Cubs and saw them fall one game in the standings by one game.

Mathewson's 1909 season was a success; but not as strong as the previous year, he had a better earned run average (1.14), a record of 25-6. He starred in 1910 and 1911, then again in 1911, when the Giants won their first pennant since 1905. The Giants lost the 1911 World Series to the Philadelphia Athletics, the same team that had defeated the 1905 champions. Mathewson and Rube Marquard gave Hall of Famer Frank Baker two game-winning home runs, earning him the nickname, "Home Run." Mathewson, the team's "star pitcher," has been with the Giants since 1911, 1912, and 1913 seasons, the first time he had signed a three-year deal, the first time he had signed a contract longer than a year.

Mathewson gave another outstanding show in 1912 in 1912. The Giants were fueled by the stolen base game and a solid pitching staff captained by Rube Marquard, the "11,000-dollar lemon" who went around to win 26 games, 19 of which were played consecutively. The Giants defeated the Boston Red Sox, the 1904 American League pennant champions who would have met the Giants in the World Series that year if one had been played. Despite Mathewson's completions and maintained an earned run average below 1.00, the Giants made several mistakes, including a lazy popup dropped by Fred Snodgrass in the eighth game (Game 2 was a tie). The Giants also lost the 1913 World Series, a 102-win season on the mound capped by Mathewson's last stellar season on the mound, with a league-leading 2.06 earned run average in over 300 innings pitched to 0.6 bases on balls per nine innings pitched.

Mathewson began to fail for the remainder of his Giants' career. The former champions were soon to lose their place. The Giants were the worst team in the National League standings in 1915, during Mathewson's penultimate season in New York. Mathewson, who had expressed an interest in serving as a mentor, was hired as a Cincinnati Reds manager in July 21, 1916.

Mathewson's career came full circle when he and Edd Roush were traded to the Cincinnati Reds on July 20, 1916. He was announced as the Reds' player-manager straight away. However, he appeared in only one game for the Reds as a pitcher on September 4, 1916. In the second half of a doubleheader, he met Brown for the final match between the two old baseball heroes. The high-scoring game was a win for Mathewson's Reds over Brown's Cubs, ten-8.

Mathewson retired as a player after the season and coached the Reds for the entire 1917 season and 1918 games, totaling 164-176 as a boss.

Personal life and literary career

In 1903, Mathewson married Jane Stoughton (1880–1967). Christopher Jr., their only son, was born shortly after. Christy Mathewson Jr. died in a bomb blast at his house in Texas on August 16, 1950. The family lived in a duplex in upper Manhattan during Mathewson's playing years, alongside Mathewson's boss John McGraw and his wife Blanche. Mathewson and McGraw remained good friends for the remainder of their lives. Nicholas Mathewson, Christy Mathewson's younger brother, committed suicide in a neighbor's barn in the 1909 offseason. Henry Mathewson, a brother of the Giants, spent a short time with the Giants before dying of tuberculosis in 1917.

During his lifetime, Mathewson was highly regarded in the baseball world. His ascension to fame brought a different name to the common ballplayer, who liked gambling, boozing, or womanizing. Mathewson, a devout Christian who never pitched on Sunday, was a promise he made to his mother that gained him a following among the more devoted New York fans and earned him the nickname "The Christian Gentleman." However, the effect of this activity on the Giants was minimized, because only the Chicago Cubs (Illinois), Cincinnati Reds (Ohio), and St. Louis Cardinals (Missouri) played home games in states that permitted professional sports on Sunday.

Mathewson spent his free time enjoying nature walks, reading, golf, and checkers, of which he was a well-known champion player. For many fans, even those opposed to the Giants, his combination of athletic ability and intellectual interests made him a favorite among many others. He was lauded by sportswriters, and he began with deafening cheers in his prime every game. Occasionally, the noise caused him to get out ten minutes before his fielders took the field. Mathewson was soon to be the Giants' unspoken captain.

He was the only one to whom John McGraw ever had complete discretion. McGraw advised many younger players to pay attention and listen to his wisdom.

Mathewson was regarded by baseball fans as a pitcher of exceptional sportsmanship. He was often asked to write columns about forthcoming games. Mathewson's classic memoir Pitching in a Pinch, or Pitching from the Inside, which was admired by poet Marianne Moore and is now in print. Mathewson co-wrote The Girl and The Pennant, a modestly profitable play that was influenced by Helene Hathaway Britton's ownership of the St. Louis Cardinals. Mathewson went on to write more literary fiction after seeing Second Base Sloan, a children's book published in 1917.

Hugh Fullerton, one of the 1919 Black Sox's chief journalists, consulted Mathewson for information about baseball gambling. Fullerton rely on Mathewson for his writing acumen and unbiased viewpoint. Mathewson, both a player and manager, had many seasons of playing with Hal Chase, a veteran major league player who has been heavily involved in multiple gambling scandals and attempts to fix games.

Mathewson, the only former ballplayer among the group of investigating journalists, was involved in Fullerton's coverage of the 1919 World Series scandal.

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