Lewisburg, PA.
Visited August 2013
October is baseball month in the blog. In this post it’s an honor to feature an
original Hall of Famer, Christy Mathewson.
Even though he ended his pitching career almost a century ago he still
ranks in the all-time top ten in most major pitching categories. Nicknamed “Big Six” by fellow ball-players
(because his stature) Christy Mathewson is generally considered to be one of
the classiest players ever to play the game.
What is less known is the extraordinary service he rendered to his
country as a soldier in World War I.
Read on.
Christopher Mathewson was born August 12, 1880 in a small
town above Scranton PA called Factoryville, PA. Upon graduation from high school he enrolled
at nearby Bucknell University where he played collegiate baseball and football,
joined a fraternity and was elected senior class president. He was named to the Walter Camp All American
football team in 1900 as a drop-kicker.
This was not the typical route to a professional baseball career at the
beginning of the 20th Century.
But he had begun playing semi-pro baseball at the age of 14 and played
minor league ball throughout his college years, so he left college already
eyeing a Major League career.
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| Big Six in action |
Christy Mathewson pitched his first game as a major leaguer
for the New York Giants at the age of 19 in 1900. He won 20 games in 1901. By 1902 he was also playing in the National
Football League as a fullback for the Pittsburgh Stars. He abruptly ended his football career when
the baseball Giants apparently demanded he end his second sports career if he
wanted to play with them. The decision
was apparently the right one because Mathewson quickly emerged as one of the
dominating pitchers in the game. He
built a reputation as a student of hitters whose variety of pitches and
pinpoint control could make him almost unhittable at times. Connie Mack said of Big Six, "It was
wonderful to watch him pitch when he wasn’t pitching against you."
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| Christy and Jane in 1918 right before shipping out |
In 1903 Mathewson married his college sweetheart Jane and
they had their only child, a son, later in the year. Mathewson was a devout Christian and was
dubbed ‘The Christian Gentlemen’ – a demonstration of respect by fellow players
and others associated with the game Throughout
his career he refused to pitch on Sunday based on his Sabbath convictions.
Here is some interesting footage of Mathewson and his Hall of Fame manager John McGraw
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| 2011 T-205 Baseball Card - lists for $100,000 in mint condition |
Christy Mathewson’s 1905 season is one of the greatest
pitching performances in the history of baseball. He went 31 and 9 with a 1.28 ERA and 206
strikeouts. He walked only 64 batters in
338 innings. Mathewson led the Giants to the World Series
where he threw three complete game shut-outs over the course of six days as the
Giants defeated the Philadelphia A’s in five games. In 1908 he won 37 games. While never winning another World Series
“Matty’ Mathewson (another affectionate nickname) retired age 36 at the end of
the 1916 season after 17 years in the league.
He finished his career with 373 wins (third on the all-time list and
tops in the National League) and a lifetime 2.13 ERA. Following his retirement Mathewson managed
the Cincinnati Reds during the 1917 season.
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| The Christian Gentleman and the Georgia Peach (Ty Cobb) in Europe |
With the US entry into World War I in 1918 Christy Mathewson
was looking for a way to serve his country.
Though 37 years old and a family man, he joined a special unit along
with (Ty Cobb and Branch Rickey) known as the Chemical Warfare Service (aka,
the Gas and Flame Division). The unit
had a singular purpose – to be on the front lines and attack into any chemical
warfare assault and repel the threat with flamethrowers. Seriously!
Tragically during one of the extensive live gas training exercises at the front Matty was not able to get his gas mask secured. Ty Cobb describes the scene this way in his autobiography, “My Life in Baseball”.
“I will never forget the day when some of the men, myself
included, missed the signal (to snap their mask into position). Men
screamed…when they got a whiff of the sweet death in the air, they went crazy
with fear and I remember Mathewson telling me ‘Ty, I got a good dose of the
stuff. I feel terrible’….I saw Christy Mathewson doomed to die.”
A fuller account of Mathewson’s military service from Stars and Stripes can be read here.
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| Mathewson statue in his hometown of Factoryville, PA |
Following his recovery Big Six returned to coach for the
Giants in 1919-21, but his health had been severely compromised in the
accident. He spent most of his time at
Lake Saranac in upstate New York for his health. However, he contracted tuberculosis as a
result of his gas exposure and succumbed to it at his Saranac home at the age
of 45 on October 7, 1925. According to
the Ken Burns' documentary series, Baseball,
Mathewson's last words were to his wife: “Now Jane, I want you to go outside
and have yourself a good cry. Don't make it a long one; this can't be helped.” His body was returned to his hometown and
buried at Lewisburg Cemetery adjacent to Bucknell University. The college football stadium has been named
after him.
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| Original five clockwise from top left - Mathewson, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb |
In 1936 Christy Mathewson was one of the original five
inductees (along with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson , and Honus Wagner)
into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The
Christian Gentleman was the only posthumous inductee in the class. His jersey, denoted as "NY"
(because there were no player numbers at that time) has been retired by the San
Francisco Giants and hangs in the left-field corner of AT&T Park. Legendary
writer Grantland Rice eulogized Christy Mathewson with these words.
"Christy Mathewson brought something to baseball no one
else had ever given the game. He handed the game a certain touch of class, an
indefinable lift in culture, brains, and personality….He gripped the
imagination of a country that held a hundred million people, and held the grip
with a firmer hold than any man of his day or time!”
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| Big Six plaque in the Hall of Fame |
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| Mathewson stone with my Phillies cap and baseball paraphernalia left by another visitor. The marker is a war veteran's emblem. |
I grew up reading about Christy Mathewson and he fit the
ideal of accomplishment and character I was always told to emulate. So he’s been a prime candidate for this
blog. But Lewisburg, PA is really not on
the way to anything so I always wondered how I’d get there. I decided to take a little detour on the way
to speak at our church Youth Camp – a beautiful drive to a nice little
town. Lewisburg Cemetery is adjacent to
the campus. There is a sign at the
entrance with a little bit of history but no indication of where Mathewson’s
grave is located. So if you happen to be
in the Lewisburg area (not likely) and want to visit Christy Mathewson’s grave
(extremely not likely) then here’s a guide.
Turn into the main entrance and up the drive in front of you. Before you get to a cross lane at the top of
the hill you’ll pass a cement walkway on your right. Park there.
Then walk up the driveway another couple of rows of graves and look to
your right. Mathewson’s tombstone is
visible near the driveway on the right hand side.
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| Your blogger in front of Christy Mathewson Stadium at Bucknell University |
