In The Old Ball Game, Frank Deford, NPR sports
commentator and Sports Illustrated journalist retells
the story of an unusual friendship between two towering
figures in baseball history.
At the turn of the
twentieth century, Christy Mathewson was one of baseball's
first superstars. Over six feet tall, clean cut, and college
educated, he didn't pitch on the Sabbath and rarely spoke an
ill word about anyone. He also had one of the most
devastating arms in all of baseball. New York Giants manager
John McGraw, by contrast, was ferocious. The pugnacious
tough guy was already a star infielder who, with the
Baltimore Orioles, helped develop a new, scrappy style of
baseball, with plays like the hit-and-run, the Baltimore
chop, and the squeeze play. When McGraw joined the Giants in
1902, the Giants were coming off their worst season ever.
Yet within three years, Mathewson clinched New York City's
first World Series for McGraw's team by throwing three
straight shutouts in only six days, an incredible feat that
is invariably called the greatest World Series performance
ever. Because of their wonderful odd-couple association,
baseball had its first superstar, the Giants ascended into
legend, and baseball as a national pastime bloomed.
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