Mathewson, "Christy" (Christopher)
Baseball
b. Aug. 12, 1880, Factoryville, PA
d. Oct. 7, 1925
In an era when the public perceived major league players as tough, brawling, hard-drinking, profane ruffians, Mathewson was the All-American boy. Well-dressed and clean-cut, he had starred in baseball, basketball and football at Bucknell University, where he was class president and a member of the glee club and literary society. Grantland Rice once wrote of Mathewson, "He handed the game a certain. . . indefinable lift in culture, brains, personality."
Mathewson dropped out of college to play professional baseball in 1899. A right-handed pitcher, he developed a pitch called the "reverse curve" or "fadeaway," now usually known as the "screwball," a pitch that breaks in on a right-handed hitter rather than away from him. Later in his career, he came up with another unusual pitch that he called a "dry spitter," which was probably a knuckleball.
He joined the NL's New York Giants during the 1900 season and had an 0-3 record before being sent back down to the minor leagues. But he was back to stay in 1901 and, during the next 14 seasons, he won 20 or more games 13 times and 30 or more 4 times.
Mathewson led the league in strikeouts from 1903 through 1905 and had 30 or more victories each year, going 30-13, 33-12, and 31-9 over that period. He led the league in wins, shutouts (8), and ERA (1.28) in 1905, when the Giants won the pennant. In New York's five-game World Series victory over the Philadelphia Athletics, Mathewson had three shutouts, giving up just 14 hits and walking 1 while striking out 18 in 27 innings.
After a 22-12 record in 1906, Mathewson led the league with 24 victories, 8 shutouts, and 178 strikeouts in 1907. He followed that with his greatest season, when he won 37 games, an NL record for the twentieth century, with a league-leading 34 complete games, 11 shutouts, 5 saves, 390 2/3 innings pitched, 259 strikeouts, and a 1.43 ERA.
Mathewson again led the NL with a 1.14 ERA in 1909, and he also had the best winning percentage, .806 on a 25-6 record. He was the leader in victories with a 27-9 record in 1910.
The Giants won three straight pennants from 1911 through 1913, with Mathewson going 26-13, 23-12, and 25-11 and leading the league in ERA with 1.99 in 1911 and 2.06 in 1913. However, the Giants lost all three World Series and Mathewson had a 2-5 record despite a 1.51 ERA.
After a 24-13 mark in 1914, Mathewson was only 88-14 the following season. Late in 1915, the Giants traded him to Cincinnati so he could become the Reds' manager. He appeared in just one game for Cincinnati, finishing with a 4-4 record. Mathewson managed the team until he was drafted during the 1918 season.
His lungs were severely damaged by poison gas while he was serving in Europe. When he returned after World War I, he coached with the Giants for three years, then went into a sanitarium with tuberculosis. Mathewson was released in 1923 and became the president of the Boston Braves. A little more than two years later, he was back in the sanitarium, and he died while the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Senators were playing the first game of the 1925 World Series.
Mathewson had a 373-188 record, a .665 winning percentage, with 79 shutouts and a 2.13 ERA. He struck out 2,502 hitters and walked only 844 in 4,780 2/3 innings.