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Pitching in a Pinch

Christy Mathewson

Book Overview: 

In this book Mathewson is telling the reader of the game as it is played in the Big Leagues.... It’s as good as his pitching and some exciting things have happened in the Big Leagues, stories that never found their way into the newspapers. Matty has told them. This is a true tale of Big Leaguers, their habits and their methods of playing the game, written by one of them.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .s opponents are doing everything they can to disconcert him.

Managers wait for this break, and the shrewd league leader can often time it. Frequently a certain style of play is adopted to lead up to the pinch, then suddenly a slovenly mode of attack is changed, and the team comes on with a rush in an effort to break up the game. That is the real test of a pitcher. He must be able to live through these squalls.

Two evenly matched clubs have been playing through six innings with neither team gaining any advantage. Let us say that they are the Giants and the Chicago Cubs. Suddenly the Chicago pitcher begins to weaken in the seventh. Spectators cannot perceive this, but McGraw, the Giants’ manager, has detected some crack. All has been quiet on the bench up to this moment. Now the men begin to fling about sweaters and move around, one going to the water cooler to get a drink, another picking up a bat or two and flinging them in the air, while four or f. . . Read More

Community Reviews

Written near the height of Mathewson's extraordinary career, this book shows just how complex the game had already become by 1912. Mathewson sheds light on a lot of technical matters like the finer points of base running, pitching and coaching - but what really makes it fascinating is the focus on t

Loved this book. Mathewson's erudite descriptions of early 20th Century baseball are fascinating and insightful. His musings really bring to light how the game we watch today came to be.

Also, the chapter that describes Pittsburgh as the fancy town full of rich society people, with all its industry m

' "Larry" Doyle thought that he had received the raw end of a decision at second base one day. He ran down to first, where Klem had retreated after he passed his judgment.
"Say, 'Bill,'" exploded "Larry," "that man didn't touch the bag - didn't come within six feet of it."
"Say, Doyle," replied Klem,

Read this after reading "The Baseball 100" by Joe Posnanski. Loved that other book. This book is a very interesting look back in time before Babe Ruth and the live ball era. It often feels like old newspaper stories. The writing is clear, the old language is interesting (e.g. he constantly refers to

This is a fun re-read for me, having come across this book a few years back and enjoying it while understanding that there are some limitations to it. This book is ostensibly by Christopher "Christy" Mathewson, though it's ghostwritten by a professional sportswriter. Mathewson, one of the greatest p

This is a fun book written by the great pitcher Christy Mathewson, who was among the first college graduates to play pro baseball. The book is well-written, and of course there are lots of boring parts talking about certain plays with players from the first decade of the twentieth century. The best

The great Christy Mathewson’s 1912 book “Pitching in a Pinch” is first and foremost an insight into the psychology and technique of professional baseball rather than a typical autobiography. However, these chapters penned by Matty help the modern reader greatly in understanding the realm of the Dead

In some ways, this was a painful book to read, due some stilted sports-reporter-isms, and the casual expressions of the bigotry and racism of the time and place To put it in context, it was published a few years before D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" was released.

On the other hand, it does provi

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