Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson
Giants Hurler is the Third Winningest Pitcher in Baseball History
Jan 19, 2009
Christopher “Christy” Mathewson was inarguably one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. Starring for the New York Giants during the height of the Deadball Era, he won 373 games, played on four National League pennant winners, and practically won the 1905 World Series by himself. This is his baseball story.
Christy Mathewson's Rise to Stardom
Mathewson’s big league career began in 1900 when the New York Giants signed him to a contract for the princely sum of $1,500. During his first three seasons, Mathewson was good, but not great, winning 34 games and losing 37 for a Giants’ team that stunk like a hunk of Limburger cheese that had been left in the summer sun for about a month. But by 1903, the fortunes of both Mathewson and the Giants began to change. Using a pitch that he called the “fadeaway” (which is known today as a screwball), Christy won 30 games, posted an ERA of 2.26, led the league in strikeouts with 267, and helped the Giants rise from cellar dwellers to a second place finish. The next season, Mathewson won 33 games and the Giants won the pennant.
It was in 1905, however, that Mathewson may have been at his best. That year he won the National League Pitching Triple Crown by leading the league in wins (31), strikeouts (212), and ERA (1.28). In the World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics, Mathewson pitched three complete game shutouts, and the Giants won the Series in five games. As a result of his remarkable season, Mathewson soon became one of the first in a long line of New York City sports superstars, and has been called the first American sports icon of the 20th Century.
A Well-Educated Christian Gentleman
Not many ballplayers were very educated in the early days of the 20th Century. Mathewson, on the other hand, had gone to college at Bucknell, where he was a member of the school's literary society and glee club, and later in his life, he wrote several children's books; something that one just cannot imagine Ty Cobb doing in his spare time. The big righty was also a devout Christian, who refused to pitch on Sundays, a practice that, along with his dignified manner and clean-living, led sportswriters of the era to label him "The Christian Gentleman."
Mathewson's Decade of Dominance
Christy continued his dominance over the next decade, winning at least 22 games a year from 1906 through 1914, with a career high 37 victories in 1908. Although he never won another World Series, he did help the Giants win three National League pennants in a row, from 1911 to 1913.
In 1915, the 34-year old hurler was troubled by constant back and shoulder pain (which is not surprising, considering that he regularly pitched more than 300 innings a year), and his record fell to 8-14. In the midst of the 1916 season, the Giants traded him to the Cincinnati Reds, for whom he pitched just one game before retiring as a player. He then managed the Reds through the end of the 1918 season, but didn’t have much success.
World War I Accident Leads to Mathewson's Death
In 1918, Mathewson enlisted in the Army to fight in World War I, and in a horrible accident, he was gassed by friendly forces in a training exercise. The poison gas caused his health to deteriorate, and eventually forced him into a tuberculosis sanitarium in upstate New York, where he died on the first day of the 1925 World Series. He was forty-five years old.
Christy's Mathewson's Career Statistics and Records
In his 17-year career, Mathewson won 373 games, tying him with Grover Cleveland Alexander for third most victories on the all-time list. His lifetime ERA of 2.13 ranks fifth in history, and his 79 career shutouts are the third most ever. He led the National League in wins four times (1905, '07, '08, and '10), in strikeouts five times (1903-'05, '07-'08), and in earned run average five times (1905, '08, '09, '11 and '12). Mathewson's 37 wins in 1908 are the most by a National League pitcher in the modern era.
Perhaps the best remark about Mathewson's talent came from Connie Mack, who said: "It was wonderul to watch him pitch when he wasn't pitching against you."
In 1936, Mathewson was one of the original five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, along with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Walter Johnson.
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