Christy Mathewson

Baseball Player

• Born: August 12, 1880
• Birthplace: Factoryville, Pennsylvania
• Died: October 7, 1925
• Place of death: Saranac Lake, New York

Sport: Baseball

Early Life

Christopher Mathewson was born in the small northeastern Pennsylvania town of Factoryville on August 12, 1880. Factoryville was a calm and quiet town, and many of its people were deeply religious. Christy’s mother wanted him to be a preacher, but from an early age, he aspired to become a professional baseball player. Christy’s talents became evident early, as he first played for pay at the age of fourteen. He developed as a pitcher while attending a local school, the Keystone Academy. His Protestant, middle-class upbringing influenced Christy to attend college, which was uncommon for the majority of ballplayers of his time.

The Road to Excellence

From the Keystone Academy, Christy went to Bucknell College, where he dominated the athletic scene as both a football and a baseball star. The collegiate rules of that time allowed him to play semiprofessional baseball in the summers. He also became a prominent personality on campus as class president, through his involvement in several literary societies, glee club, and the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and because of his ability as a checker player.

At almost 6 feet 2 inches tall and 200 pounds, Christy, blond and blue-eyed, was a handsome and commanding figure. One sportswriter described him as a good-looking boy with sparkling eyes and a low, melodious voice. Christy later became one of the first professional athletes to function as a role model for America’s young.

In 1899, Christy began his professional baseball career with the Taunton, Massachusetts, club of the New England League. He posted a pitching record of five wins and two losses while earning a salary of $90 a month. At Taunton, Christy began developing his famous “fadeaway” pitch, which modern pitchers call the screwball. The Taunton club eventually went broke.

Still pursuing his dream of becoming a professional baseball player, nineteen-year-old Christy joined the Norfolk, Virginia, club of the Virginia League for the 1900 season. The young pitcher first hinted at his eventual greatness, winning twenty games while losing only two.

The Emerging Champion

Christy’s major-league debut was not promising. Called up to the National League’s New York Giants in July of 1900, Christy appeared in five games. With a record of no wins and three losses, Christy was sent back to Norfolk.

The Cincinnati club then drafted him, after which he was traded back to the Giants, who must have had second thoughts about the young right-hander. “Matty,” as Christy would be called by baseball fans, justified his return to the Giants by winning twenty games in his first full major-league season.

During the 1902 season, the Giants fell to last place and Christy had fourteen wins and seventeen losses. In July of that season, however, a new manager had come to the Giants whose name would forever be linked with Christy’s—John McGraw.

McGraw realized that his team’s fortunes depended greatly upon Christy’s right arm. So, in the spring of 1903, he worked hard to earn the pitcher’s friendship and trust. Spring training served as a honeymoon for Christy and his new wife, Jane, whom he had met while in college. When the Giants returned to New York to begin the season, the McGraws and Mathewsons agreed to share an apartment in the city.

The bond that grew between Christy and John has been called unlikely. Improbably, the tall, gentlemanly, and soft-spoken pitcher got along with his short, often crude, and critical manager. Both men were intent on winning, however, and the combination of Mathewson and McGraw transformed the Giants.

Continuing the Story

In 1903, Christy became a star with a record of thirty wins and thirteen losses, and the Giants jumped to second place. That marked the beginning of twelve straight seasons of more than twenty wins for Christy, including four of thirty or more. In 1908, he set the record for wins in the National League with thirty-seven. Christy also shares the record for the third-highest number of wins in major-league history, with 373.

Perhaps Christy’s greatest season was 1905, when he led the league in victories (31), winning percentage (.775), earned run average (1.27), strikeouts (206), and shutouts (8), capturing the first of two triple crowns for pitching—he won the second in 1908. In the World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics that fall, he pitched 3 shutouts in six days while allowing 14 hits and one base on balls in 27 innings.

A master of control and an easy worker, Christy could go many innings without issuing a base on balls. During the 1913 season, he pitched 68 consecutive innings without walking a batter. Christy delivered his fadeaway, fastball, curve, and floater with a smooth overhand motion.

The last big season for Christy was 1914, when he won twenty-four and lost thirteen. In 1915, the thirty-five-year-old pitcher struggled to only eight wins and fourteen losses. In July of 1916, the Giants traded Christy to Cincinnati so he could become a playing manager. He pitched only one game for the Reds and was victorious.

In August, 1918, Christy left the Reds to join the military and severely damaged his lungs when he accidentally inhaled poison gas. He recovered enough to return to the Giants in 1919 as a coach for John McGraw. He was soon diagnosed as having tuberculosis, however. Christy died in October of 1925, at the age of forty-five.

Summary

Giants manager John McGraw called Christy Mathewson “the greatest pitcher that ever lived.” Pittsburgh Pirate star Honus Wagner said, “Mathewson knew more in five minutes about batters than the modern pitcher does in a whole season.” Various sources rank Christy with other great right-handed pitchers such as Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Bob Feller, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Greg Maddux, and Roger Clemens. However, perhaps Christy’s noblest attribute was that he was the first American sports hero whose personal appeal crossed all social, economic, and cultural boundaries. He proved that a professional athlete could remain a gentleman.

Bibliography

Deford, Frank. The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005.

Hartley, Michael. Christy Mathewson: A Biography. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004.

Seib, Philip. Player: Christy Mathewson, Baseball, and the American Century. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2004.

Steinberg, Steve. “Matty and the Browns: A Window onto the AL-NL War.” Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture 14, no. 2 (Spring, 2006): 102-117.