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Baseball's First Superstar

Baseball's First Superstar

The Lost Life Story of Christy Mathewson

by Alan D. Gaff

Published by: University of Nebraska Press

Imprint: University of Nebraska Press

248 Pages, 152.00 × 229.00 mm, 25 photographs, 3 illustrations

Hardcover
9781496243270
Published: May 2025

£25.99

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Description
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Praise

If there was a first face of baseball, it was arguably Christopher “Christy” Mathewson. At the opening of the twentieth century, baseball was considered an undignified game played by ruffians for gamblers’ benefit. Mathewson changed all that. When he signed with the Giants in 1900, his contract stated he wouldn’t pitch on Sundays, and he was known for his honesty, integrity, and good looks.

In his first fourteen seasons, as a pitcher for the Giants, Mathewson never won fewer than twenty games in a season, and he almost single-handedly won the 1905 World Series. In 1918, though age thirty-eight and exempt from military service, he enlisted for World War I, where he exposed himself to nearly lethal amounts of mustard gas as he taught soldiers how to put on gas masks. When he returned home, he was diagnosed with lung problems and tuberculosis, which led to his untimely death at the age of forty-five.

After Mathewson’s death, his eulogies were many, but it was impossible to catch the essence of his life in a single newspaper column. Jane Mathewson, his widow, was determined to provide the reading public with a more intimate portrait of her husband and approached prominent sportswriter Bozeman Bulger, who had known Mathewson for twenty years. Bulger wrote a series of articles titled “The Life Story of Christy Mathewson.” His portraits about the player were amplified by original accounts from Jane, and several unpublished chapters from Mathewson himself, which had been discovered among his papers. These combined accounts allow readers to hear from Mathewson and those who knew him best.

A superstar long before that term was coined, Mathewson became an icon of sportsmanship. He was posthumously elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame at its first induction ceremony in 1936. In Baseball’s First Superstar Alan D. Gaff brings Mathewson to life through Mathewson’s own writings and those of others, largely lost to history until now.

“If Christy Mathewson didn’t exist, baseball would have had to invent him. The game had matured to the point where genuine heroes were needed. Alan Gaff’s well researched book gives us a fresh look at Matty, just in time for the centennial of his passing.”-Marty Appel, a New York Yankees historian and author of Pinstripe Empire and Casey Stengel

“Through deep research into baseball’s early years and into Christy Mathewson’s own career, this must-read book celebrates the history of baseball, the way the game was reported, and the life of one of the greatest players of all time, Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson. You don’t want to miss this wonderful book.”-Paul Semendinger, author of The Least among Them

“Alan Gaff makes a very compelling case for anointing Christy Mathewson as baseball’s first true superstar, ahead of the likes of Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Honus Wagner, and, yes, even Babe Ruth. . . . Gaff’s work paints a vivid picture of Mathewson’s greatness on and off the field and is an essential read for any baseball fan who loves and appreciates the game’s history.”-Mark Braff, author of Sons of Baseball: Growing Up with a Major League Dad

“Alan Gaff has again sleuthed his way into the lore of America’s pastime and presented a player whose name we know but whose personage we do not. Just as with his Lou Gehrig book, Gaff has unearthed a trove of baseball treasure with descriptions and stories of Mathewson by those who knew him best. Such an undertaking is a testament to the author’s love and appreciation for America’s great game.”-Dustin Bass, cohost of the Sons of History podcast

“Alan Gaff has done a yeoman’s job in putting Christy Mathewson’s excellence in context. . . . Gaff offers new insights on Mathewson from his days at Bucknell University to his military service in World War I to his death from tuberculosis at the age of forty-five.”-David Krell, author of Bo Belinsky: The Rise, Fall and Rebound of a Playboy Pitcher

“Reading Baseball’s First Superstar made me feel like I know Christy Mathewson and had even watched him pitch-and reinforced that he was due every accolade of his pitching ever given and was worthy of being a role model for every generation. It’s a wonderful tale that should be on every baseball fan’s nightstand.”-Robert Skead, author of The Batboy and the Unbreakable Record

“Alan D. Gaff gifts us with a forgotten biography and memoir of one of the grandest twirlers of all time: Christy ‘Gumboots’ Mathewson. Yes, Gumboots. Read on!”-Tim Manners, coauthor with Waite Hoyt of Schoolboy: The Untold Journey of a Yankees Hero