Sundays with Matty

Bob Palazzo interviews Christy Mathewson with the help of Eddie Frierson

Well - we got our scoop! As promised, through the efforts of his good friend Eddie Frierson, I was able to interview Christy Mathewson. Matty has a lot to say and he says it well. From opponents, to personal triumphs and failures, he shares with us his approach to the game of baseball and philosophy of life.

Eddie Frierson as Matty

The questions and answers have been grouped into six big (or "big six") segments, in homage to his world famous nickname. The sections are: "In Matty's Opinion", "Matty's Take on Others", "Pitching - The Art", "Pitching - Of a Different Variety", " The Early Years and Nicknames", "It's Personal". A different section will appear each Sunday until all have been posted. In addition, there will be a special feature that will be posted after week six. There has been no editing, other than grammar.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to sit back, let your mind travel, and imagine yourself with this baseball giant as he shares his innermost thoughts on baseball with you.

Section Four: Pitching - Of a Different Variety

Palazzo:
Tell us about the book published in 1912, "Pitching in a Pinch." Did you really write it?

Matty:
Yes and no. John "Jack" Wheeler put together all of my accounts on paper after I found that time did not permit me to actually write every word myself. He conducted a series of interviews with me in New York and on the trains that he turned into articles for the papers, including The Sporting News. These accounts were then read by me and only after making my notations and corrections did Jack put my name on the byline. It was the wonderful writer (and good friend) Bozeman Bulger who first had the idea of me doing this. He put together a series of articles for the papers under my name and later he and I worked together on the story for my first book, Won In the Ninth. Rida Johnson Young asked me, in 1913, to lend a hand to her baseball stage play The Girl and the Pennant and I gladly did so. She gave me co-author credit although I did little more than pepper up the baseball lingo and provide her with uninspired character names like "Cy Dobb" and "Hans Hagner". "Fred Terkle" and, well, you get the idea.

There were two instances when I did not have the opportunity to proof articles attributed to me prior to their going to press. One was the famous article during the 1911 World's Series, where an off-record quote of mine relating what John McGraw told us before the games about Frank Baker turned into my accusing Rube Marquard of not following instructions (when Baker homered in the game). The irony of my not taking the time to go over that copy came back and bit me that same afternoon when Baker homered off me as well, thus earning the name forever - "Home Run" Baker.

Palazzo:
How did a nice homeboy like you who was taught not to smoke end up endorsing tobacco? Do you regret it?

Matty:
I was brought up rather strictly among sober country folks who considered the evils of smoke and drink a national calamity and criticized many things to which New York would never give a second thought. I never would have given smoking a second thought but I was forced to learn how to in self defense. I was playing minor league ball in Norfolk. The club in those days did not travel in the style which I later became accustomed to with the New York Giants. When we were moving from town to town we rode in the smoker car on the train - because then, minor league ball players were not looked highly upon - the smoker was the only car on which we were allowed to ride. The air in that smoker would get so thick you could plow furrows in it with a baseball bat. My eyes burned and my throat hacked. I could not breathe - much less sleep - until the problem was finally solved by a teammate who shoved a lit cigar in my mouth and said, "Here you are, Christy boy! The only way to get through this is to puff on one of these here yourself." And that's what I did. I puffed on that cigar until it made me sick but, then, I could endeavor to sleep. It's funny, though. After three or four times I began to like the taste and feel of that cigar in my hand and, don't ask me why, but I decided, from then on, as long as it didn't affect my wind I would go ahead and enjoy my tobacco.

Do I regret it? No. The endorsements were very helpful for my family and me to obtain a life of comfort and no worries. And, I never found smoking, itself, to affect my wind. However, I do realize that it is possible to be a bother to some as I did see it seem to be harmful to other ball-players who stayed out too late, drank a lot and smoked while trying to maintain top shape.