Christy “Matty” Mathewson
was one of the most dominant pitchers ever to play baseball. Posthumously
inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of the “Five Immortals,” he was
an unstoppable force on the mound, winning at least twenty-two games for twelve
straight seasons and pitching three complete-game shutouts in the 1905 World
Series.
Pitching in a Pinch, originally published in
1912, is an insider’s account of the world of baseball, blending anecdote,
biography, instruction, and social history. Always sensitive to psychology as
well as technique, Mathewson describes the game as it was played in the first
decade of the twentieth century: the “dangerous batters”; the “peculiarities” of big-league pitchers; the
“good and bad” of coaching, umpiring, sign-stealing, base-running, and spring
training; and the importance of superstition to athletes. Baseball fans will enjoy
first-hand accounts of Mathewson’s famous contemporaries, including players
Honus Wagner and Rube Marquand, managers like John McGraw and Connie Mack, and
many others, and will learn how much—and just how little—has really changed in
one hundred years.
Download and start listening now!
"A fascinating historical perspective on the game of baseball from a century ago.
"
—
Jeff (4 out of 5 stars)