Pitching in a Pinch: or Baseball from the Inside

by Christy Mathewson, Eric Rolfe Greenberg

Overview

Christy Mathewson (1880–1925) was the greatest baseball pitcher of his day, a hero with appeal reaching beyond sports. A college-educated player from Pennsylvania farm country, he restored respectability to a game tarnished by the rowdies who had dominated baseball in the 1890s.

Pitching in a Pinch, originally published in 1912, is an insider’s account blending anecdote, biography, instruction, and social history. It celebrates baseball as it was played in the first decade of the twentieth century by famous contemporaries like Honus Wagner and Rube Marquand, managers like John McGraw and Connie Mack, and many others. Always sensitive to psychology as well as technique, Mathewson describes the “dangerous batters” he faced, the “peculiarities” of big-league pitchers, the “good and bad” of coaching, umpiring, sign-stealing, base-running, spring training, and the importance of superstition to athletes. Matty, as he was called, makes the reader feel that tense moment when a player in a pinch must use his head.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803282124
Publisher:	UNP - Nebraska Paperback
Publication date:	11/28/2002
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	344
Sales rank:	356,328
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Introducing this Bison Books edition is Eric Rolfe Greenberg, whose acclaimed novel The Celebrant (1993), also a Bison Book, portrays the immortal Christy Mathewson.

Editorial Reviews

Better known for his many history titles, Gerlach in 1980 took a look at America's favorite pastime's most unfavorite people-the umpires. Gerlach profiles a dozen National and American Leaguers who together umped the game from 1920 to 1970. Steamboat Johnson's 1935 volume offers a more personal glimpse at umping as the author recalls his 25 years of ``standing the gaff''-enduring the fury of fans and players. Mathewson's star-studded 1912 volume offers anecdotes on then-famous players as well as tips on playing the game that he picked up as a star pitcher for the New York Giants and several other teams in the early 1900s.

Library Journal