Christy Mathewson

Baseball was a popular sport in its first 30 years, but it had always lacked one thing: a superstar. The 19th century was full of great players who won great popularity, but one thing the period lacked was a superstar the masses could idolize. The sport eventually did find its first superstar in the form of Christy Mathewson, a handsome, college-educated gentleman who stood as the shining star in the brutal world of early baseball. Matty, as he was known, seemed to have been the embodiment of Frank Meriwell, the virtuous baseball hero in a popular serial of the time. His only character flaw seemed to have been his arrogance, but his performance on the field justified this arrogance. He had a good grasp of the standard pitches, the fastball, the curve ball and the change-up, and he had perfected a reverse-curve ball that made him one of the most dominating pitchers of the era. It is known today as a screwball, but players back them called it a fade-away, for it seemed to fade away from the hitter's line of sight. He threw all of these pitches with pinpoint precision. To top it off, Mathewson had a degree of intelligence that was almost impossible to find in early baseball. He was book-smart, having been educated at Bucknell College, in a sport where many of the players could barely read and write, and was known to have been a terrific checkers player. And he was smart on the field. It was Christy Mathewson who coined the phrase, "You can learn little from victory. You can learn everything from defeat. "Mathewson was a child of a wealthy farmer. He played an active role during his three years in college, and was a star athlete in three sports. During the summers he would play in various minor-league teams.

Inducted into the Bucknell University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1979 for his football exploits. He also played baseball and basketball.

Inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1965.

Elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 (inaugural class). Induction ceremony was held in 1939 for the first four classes.

As soon as he showed improvement, Mathewson purchased the Boston Braves in 1923 with James McDonough and Emil Fuchs, the former attorney for the Giants. However, the team was always in dire financial straits, and Fuchs was eventually forced to sell the team when not even bringing Babe Ruth over from the Yankess could turn things around. Matty's health steadily worsened, and eventually he had to return to the sanitarium. His death crushed not only the baseball world, but also the nation, for they had lost one of their earliest and most beloved sports heroes. Nobody was sadder than John J. McGraw, who loved Mathewson as though he was the son McGraw never had.

Helped uncover the attempted fix of the 1919 World Series by the Chicago White Sox.

In 1918, he was one of many players (and former players) that enlisted in the Army to fight in the Great War. Mathewson was assigned to train recruits how to put on gas masks, and was unfortunately exposed to mustard gas during a drill, and it permanently injured his lungs. After the war, Mathewson went to coach for the Giants, but was bothered by a nasty cough. Doctors discovered that Matty had contracted tuberculosis, a potentially fatal lung disease. Mathewson moved to a sanitarium, where he stayed for a few years to recuperate.

He once defeated Newell Banks, checkers champion of 1917-1922 and 1933-1934, in a game.

Mathewson was asked to manage the Reds in the middle of 1916, and so Giants management agreed to trade the fading Mathewson to Cincinnati, where he finally got his revenge for the embarrassing loss to Brown in his 373rd and final career win. Mathewson continued to manage the Reds after his career ended, and he turned the pitiful Reds from a cellar-dweller to a. 500 club.

After a 24-win season in 1914, Mathewson's arm began fading in 1915, and went 8-14 while pitching half as much as he used to.

His 300th win came in his 23-win 1912 season.

His 300th career victory came on June 13, 1912 against none other than the Chicago Cubs. He was unable to get even with Brown. Instead, he topped staff ace 'Larry Cheney' for a 4-3 victory. Mathewson teamed up with Rube Marquard to bring the Giants another pennant that year, but suffered a rare mental lapse in the deciding game of the World Series and eventually lost to the Boston Red Sox.

Needing only 11 wins to get to the milestone after 1911, Mathewson won the first ten games quickly.

Mathewson won a career-high 37 games in 1908, but the one win he couldn't get turned out to be the most important. A playoff game was required between the Giants and the Cubs after they were tied in the regular season (after a legendary game that deserves a thread of its own), as he lost 4-2 to Mordecai Brown.

The Cubs went on to win the World Series, and never won again: The Curse of the 1908 Giants (that darned Billy goat gets too much credit.

In 1905 he pitched in his first World Series. Having already pitched a no-hitter, he continued his dominance by hurling three complete game shutouts as the Giants easily topped the A's.

He won at least 30 games in the next three seasons (30, 33, 31) and, alongside Joe McGinnity, led the Giants to consecutive pennants in 1904 and 1905.

)Mathewson never failed to win at least 20 games in a staggering 12 consecutive seasons (1903-1914).

The Giants manager tried to convert Mathewson to an infielder in 1902, but when new manager John J. McGraw arrived, he encouraged Mathewson to give pitching all he had, and Mathewson delivered.

He was purchased by the Giants, but was released after going 0-3 in his first major league season in 1900. He was later signed by both the Philadelphia Athletics (of the brand-new American League) and the Cincinnati Reds. To complicate things, the Reds mysteriously traded Mathewson to the Giants for the burned-out fireballer Amos Rusie. Forced to decide whether to return to the Giants or enter the American League, Mathewson decided to stick with the latter. He was good but not great in his first two full seasons with the Giants. He pitched a no-hitter, but went 34-34.