Pitching in a Pinch, Or, Baseball from the InsideChristy 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. Pitchingøin 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. |
Contents
ITHE MOST DANGEROUS BATTERS I HAVE | 1 |
II TAKE HIM OUT | 21 |
IIIPITCHING IN A PINCH | 54 |
IVBIG LEAGUE PITCHERS AND THEIR | 74 |
VPLAYING THE GAME FROM THE BENCH | 93 |
VICOACHINGGOOD AND BAD | 117 |
VIIHONEST AND DISHONEST SIGN STEALING | 140 |
VIIIUMPIRES AND CLOSE DECISIONS | 161 |
IXTHE GAME THAT COST A PENNANT | 183 |
TRAINING | 206 |
XIJINXES AND WHAT THEY MEAN TO | 230 |
XIIBASE RUNNERS AND HOW THEY HELP | 255 |
XIIINOTABLE INSTANCES WHERE THE IN | 281 |