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Post by pippsheadache on May 9, 2024 9:25:22 GMT -5
Since McGraw died in 1934, I'm guessing you must be about 120-130 years old Jeep. Although I would bet that you remember his widow Blanche, who attended the last Giants game at the Polo Grounds in 1957 and their first game in San Francisco in 1958. She was also present at the first Mets game in the Polo Grounds in 1962. Seriously, anytime you want to talk Matty or McGraw, count me in. In 1979 I interviewed Matty's 93-year-old next door neighbor in Factoryville PA. He had a lot of stories about the Mathewsons and McGraw visiting Factoryville when Christy returned home. The McGraws and Mathewsons shared an apartment on the Upper West Side pre-World War I. The McGraws later lived in Pelham. I have visited McGraw's birthplace in Truxton NY. Unfortunately there isn't much to see related to him other than a memorial in the center of town. I went to some of his sites in Baltimore, including the site of the saloon he and Wilbert Robinson owned in the 1890s. This was many years ago, and there were only remnants left even then. As belligerent and profane as he was, his life was full of acts of generosity. A very interesting character who was quite intelligent. I'm with you! I'm not that far from Factoryville and have visited many times. The street is named after him! I have Mattys book he wrote and a book on the 1908 season with every game in there that season! Sadly there is a school? on rte 11? that had a lot of Mattys things. Sadly they sold it all and now have reproes there. He was accidently gassed and led to his death years later. At an auction near by, they auctioned off Mattys family photos! But he wasn't in any of them! They sold for $50. Never saw him pitch, but he become my hero if that can happen! He went to Bucknell College, but never Graduated! The field is named after him! Yep, that school on Route 11 is today Keystone College -- my brother-in-law from nearby Clarks Summit went there for two years -- but when Matty was there it was Keystone Academy, which he attended before going to Bucknell. I can't believe they would have sold that memorabilia. You probably know that the land the school is built on was previously owned by Matty's mother's family. I can easily believe having a sports hero you never personally saw -- I have a lot of them, Matty among them. So you have "Pitching In A Pinch?" I have that somewhere in my stack, although I haven't read it in awhile. It was a very illuminating look at how he approached pitching. One thing that always stuck with me was how he was adamant about saving your fastest pitches for key situations, because he noted how pitchers who were always throwing their hardest were constantly getting hurt. Sounds like good advice for today, doesn't it? A good bio of Mathewson was Ray Robinson's "Matty: An American Hero." Robinson also wrote a bio of Lou Gehrig, another sports hero I never saw play. The 93-year-old Mathewson neighbor I interviewed in 1979 was six years younger than Christy, but was a classmate of Christy's brother Hank, who also pitched for Keystone and very briefly for the Giants. I long ago lost my notes from that day and never bothered to publish the story -- among other things I was getting married in a few weeks and had just started a new job and was therefore somewhat distracted -- if memory serves his name was Fisk (not related to Carlton, I asked) and he was around when the youngest Mathewson brother, 18-year-old Nick, committed suicide in the family barn. He recalled the commotion when the body was discovered -- he had shot himself several hours earlier -- and was still alive, although not for much longer. Mr. Fisk said he went with Hank to get a doctor and helped put Nick in an ambulance to take him to a hospital in Scranton. Nick was a freshman at Lafayette College, and before that also pitched for Keystone and actually did better than Christy or Hank. John McGraw doted on Nick and used to give him all kinds of Giants merchandise (much of which Nick apparently sold to make a little extra money.) Although Christy Mathewson was only 45 years old when he died, he far outlived either of his brothers. Hank died at 30 from tuberculosis. Matty was covering the 1919 World Series for one of the New York newspapers. Before Game One was more than a few innings old, he noted that something was fishy and said so publicly. There is very little film footage of Matty that I am aware of. The main one I've seen is a very short clip showing him doing warmup throws. I know that somewhere I have seen clips of McGraw in which you can hear him speak. Supposedly McGraw had only two photographs of ball players in his office -- one of Matty and one of Ross Youngs, an outstanding hitter for the Giants (and in the HOF) who died at the age of 30. |
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Post by inger on May 9, 2024 13:38:24 GMT -5
I'm with you! I'm not that far from Factoryville and have visited many times. The street is named after him! I have Mattys book he wrote and a book on the 1908 season with every game in there that season! Sadly there is a school? on rte 11? that had a lot of Mattys things. Sadly they sold it all and now have reproes there. He was accidently gassed and led to his death years later. At an auction near by, they auctioned off Mattys family photos! But he wasn't in any of them! They sold for $50. Never saw him pitch, but he become my hero if that can happen! He went to Bucknell College, but never Graduated! The field is named after him! Yep, that school on Route 11 is today Keystone College -- my brother-in-law from nearby Clarks Summit went there for two years -- but when Matty was there it was Keystone Academy, which he attended before going to Bucknell. I can't believe they would have sold that memorabilia. You probably know that the land the school is built on was previously owned by Matty's mother's family. I can easily believe having a sports hero you never personally saw -- I have a lot of them, Matty among them. So you have "Pitching In A Pinch?" I have that somewhere in my stack, although I haven't read it in awhile. It was a very illuminating look at how he approached pitching. One thing that always stuck with me was how he was adamant about saving your fastest pitches for key situations, because he noted how pitchers who were always throwing their hardest were constantly getting hurt. Sounds like good advice for today, doesn't it? A good bio of Mathewson was Ray Robinson's "Matty: An American Hero." Robinson also wrote a bio of Lou Gehrig, another sports hero I never saw play. The 93-year-old Mathewson neighbor I interviewed in 1979 was six years younger than Christy, but was a classmate of Christy's brother Hank, who also pitched for Keystone and very briefly for the Giants. I long ago lost my notes from that day and never bothered to publish the story -- among other things I was getting married in a few weeks and had just started a new job and was therefore somewhat distracted -- if memory serves his name was Fisk (not related to Carlton, I asked) and he was around when the youngest Mathewson brother, 18-year-old Nick, committed suicide in the family barn. He recalled the commotion when the body was discovered -- he had shot himself several hours earlier -- and was still alive, although not for much longer. Mr. Fisk said he went with Hank to get a doctor and helped put Nick in an ambulance to take him to a hospital in Scranton. Nick was a freshman at Lafayette College, and before that also pitched for Keystone and actually did better than Christy or Hank. John McGraw doted on Nick and used to give him all kinds of Giants merchandise (much of which Nick apparently sold to make a little extra money.) Although Christy Mathewson was only 45 years old when he died, he far outlived either of his brothers. Hank died at 30 from tuberculosis. Matty was covering the 1919 World Series for one of the New York newspapers. Before Game One was more than a few innings old, he noted that something was fishy and said so publicly. There is very little film footage of Matty that I am aware of. The main one I've seen is a very short clip showing him doing warmup throws. I know that somewhere I have seen clips of McGraw in which you can hear him speak. Supposedly McGraw had only two photographs of ball players in his office -- one of Matty and one of Ross Youngs, an outstanding hitter for the Giants (and in the HOF) who died at the age of 30. Somewhere out there in the cold dark world perhaps there is a child clutching his picture of young inger, the player he never saw play. There’s hope after all…As for old inger, he’s stuck wearing his carpal tunnel brace on his left wrist today because of a flare up. I woke up last night once and I had to check to see if I still had a hand. No feeling in it whatsoever. 🙄… |
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Post by themartian on May 9, 2024 13:40:22 GMT -5
Yep, that school on Route 11 is today Keystone College -- my brother-in-law from nearby Clarks Summit went there for two years -- but when Matty was there it was Keystone Academy, which he attended before going to Bucknell. I can't believe they would have sold that memorabilia. You probably know that the land the school is built on was previously owned by Matty's mother's family. I can easily believe having a sports hero you never personally saw -- I have a lot of them, Matty among them. So you have "Pitching In A Pinch?" I have that somewhere in my stack, although I haven't read it in awhile. It was a very illuminating look at how he approached pitching. One thing that always stuck with me was how he was adamant about saving your fastest pitches for key situations, because he noted how pitchers who were always throwing their hardest were constantly getting hurt. Sounds like good advice for today, doesn't it? A good bio of Mathewson was Ray Robinson's "Matty: An American Hero." Robinson also wrote a bio of Lou Gehrig, another sports hero I never saw play. The 93-year-old Mathewson neighbor I interviewed in 1979 was six years younger than Christy, but was a classmate of Christy's brother Hank, who also pitched for Keystone and very briefly for the Giants. I long ago lost my notes from that day and never bothered to publish the story -- among other things I was getting married in a few weeks and had just started a new job and was therefore somewhat distracted -- if memory serves his name was Fisk (not related to Carlton, I asked) and he was around when the youngest Mathewson brother, 18-year-old Nick, committed suicide in the family barn. He recalled the commotion when the body was discovered -- he had shot himself several hours earlier -- and was still alive, although not for much longer. Mr. Fisk said he went with Hank to get a doctor and helped put Nick in an ambulance to take him to a hospital in Scranton. Nick was a freshman at Lafayette College, and before that also pitched for Keystone and actually did better than Christy or Hank. John McGraw doted on Nick and used to give him all kinds of Giants merchandise (much of which Nick apparently sold to make a little extra money.) Although Christy Mathewson was only 45 years old when he died, he far outlived either of his brothers. Hank died at 30 from tuberculosis. Matty was covering the 1919 World Series for one of the New York newspapers. Before Game One was more than a few innings old, he noted that something was fishy and said so publicly. There is very little film footage of Matty that I am aware of. The main one I've seen is a very short clip showing him doing warmup throws. I know that somewhere I have seen clips of McGraw in which you can hear him speak. Supposedly McGraw had only two photographs of ball players in his office -- one of Matty and one of Ross Youngs, an outstanding hitter for the Giants (and in the HOF) who died at the age of 30. Somewhere out there in the cold dark world perhaps there is a child clutching his picture of young inger, the player he never saw play. There’s hope after all…As for old inger, he’s stuck wearing his carpal tunnel brace on his left wrist today because of a flare up. I woke up last night once and I had to check to see if I still had a hand. No feeling in it whatsoever. 🙄… Do you use a mouse left-handed? Or is that from typing? |
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Post by inger on May 9, 2024 13:51:34 GMT -5
Somewhere out there in the cold dark world perhaps there is a child clutching his picture of young inger, the player he never saw play. There’s hope after all…As for old inger, he’s stuck wearing his carpal tunnel brace on his left wrist today because of a flare up. I woke up last night once and I had to check to see if I still had a hand. No feeling in it whatsoever. 🙄… Do you use a mouse left-handed? Or is that from typing? I have it in both hands, but I had the right hand repaired surgically about 35 years ago. The left hand is kind of an off and on thing, so I’ve just kind of put it off. My dad had it in his right hand and he never got it fixed. He wound up with no feeling at all in his right hand. Remarkably, he bowled right handed by using his left hand to push his fingers into the holes in the ball. He maintained an average around the mid-160’s doing that. There’s a six week recovery time and I just don’t like going nighty-night for surgery… It’s getting worse though (at times), so I’m getting tempted to give in…. |
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Post by themartian on May 9, 2024 14:07:13 GMT -5
Do you use a mouse left-handed? Or is that from typing? I have it in both hands, but I had the right hand repaired surgically about 35 years ago. The left hand is kind of an off and on thing, so I’ve just kind of put it off. My dad had it in his right hand and he never got it fixed. He wound up with no feeling at all in his right hand. Remarkably, he bowled right handed by using his left hand to push his fingers into the holes in the ball. He maintained an average around the mid-160’s doing that. There’s a six week recovery time and I just don’t like going nighty-night for surgery… It’s getting worse though (at times), so I’m getting tempted to give in…. I had the beginnings of it in my right wrist years ago. What worked for me was also learning to use a mouse left handed and then switching if either wrist started to bark. Also I changed to using vertical mice (there are lots of brands, I like Anker). |
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Post by inger on May 9, 2024 15:00:03 GMT -5
I have it in both hands, but I had the right hand repaired surgically about 35 years ago. The left hand is kind of an off and on thing, so I’ve just kind of put it off. My dad had it in his right hand and he never got it fixed. He wound up with no feeling at all in his right hand. Remarkably, he bowled right handed by using his left hand to push his fingers into the holes in the ball. He maintained an average around the mid-160’s doing that. There’s a six week recovery time and I just don’t like going nighty-night for surgery… It’s getting worse though (at times), so I’m getting tempted to give in…. I had the beginnings of it in my right wrist years ago. What worked for me was also learning to use a mouse left handed and then switching if either wrist started to bark. Also I changed to using vertical mice (there are lots of brands, I like Anker). When I was about 34 I changed careers from retail to the commercial greenhouse business. At that time the greenhouse was small so as the shipping manager it was my responsibility to select what was to be shipped and instruct the crew what to pull out of the greenhouse, and then to load the trucks myself. There was an antiquated shipping cart system there that required me to assemble the carts as I loaded them. There were rusted bats that had to be hit into place as part of the shelving system. I probably already had the beginnings of the syndrome, but striking those pieces into place quickly began to irritate and further its progression. Since I had just taken the job and the owners didn’t know me they figured I’d sit out the 6/8 week recovery time, but I came in and continued to do my job starting with the day after surgery. I just adapted to doing things in a way I wouldn’t get hurt. The only thing I couldn’t do was tie knots, and we tied the back two carts together, so I had one of the owner’s kids tie the knots until I could do it again… |
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Post by bigjeep on May 9, 2024 17:30:25 GMT -5
Yep, that school on Route 11 is today Keystone College -- my brother-in-law from nearby Clarks Summit went there for two years -- but when Matty was there it was Keystone Academy, which he attended before going to Bucknell. I can't believe they would have sold that memorabilia. You probably know that the land the school is built on was previously owned by Matty's mother's family. I can easily believe having a sports hero you never personally saw -- I have a lot of them, Matty among them. So you have "Pitching In A Pinch?" I have that somewhere in my stack, although I haven't read it in awhile. It was a very illuminating look at how he approached pitching. One thing that always stuck with me was how he was adamant about saving your fastest pitches for key situations, because he noted how pitchers who were always throwing their hardest were constantly getting hurt. Sounds like good advice for today, doesn't it? A good bio of Mathewson was Ray Robinson's "Matty: An American Hero." Robinson also wrote a bio of Lou Gehrig, another sports hero I never saw play. The 93-year-old Mathewson neighbor I interviewed in 1979 was six years younger than Christy, but was a classmate of Christy's brother Hank, who also pitched for Keystone and very briefly for the Giants. I long ago lost my notes from that day and never bothered to publish the story -- among other things I was getting married in a few weeks and had just started a new job and was therefore somewhat distracted -- if memory serves his name was Fisk (not related to Carlton, I asked) and he was around when the youngest Mathewson brother, 18-year-old Nick, committed suicide in the family barn. He recalled the commotion when the body was discovered -- he had shot himself several hours earlier -- and was still alive, although not for much longer. Mr. Fisk said he went with Hank to get a doctor and helped put Nick in an ambulance to take him to a hospital in Scranton. Nick was a freshman at Lafayette College, and before that also pitched for Keystone and actually did better than Christy or Hank. John McGraw doted on Nick and used to give him all kinds of Giants merchandise (much of which Nick apparently sold to make a little extra money.) Although Christy Mathewson was only 45 years old when he died, he far outlived either of his brothers. Hank died at 30 from tuberculosis. Matty was covering the 1919 World Series for one of the New York newspapers. Before Game One was more than a few innings old, he noted that something was fishy and said so publicly. There is very little film footage of Matty that I am aware of. The main one I've seen is a very short clip showing him doing warmup throws. I know that somewhere I have seen clips of McGraw in which you can hear him speak. Supposedly McGraw had only two photographs of ball players in his office -- one of Matty and one of Ross Youngs, an outstanding hitter for the Giants (and in the HOF) who died at the age of 30. Somewhere out there in the cold dark world perhaps there is a child clutching his picture of young inger, the player he never saw play. There’s hope after all…As for old inger, he’s stuck wearing his carpal tunnel brace on his left wrist today because of a flare up. I woke up last night once and I had to check to see if I still had a hand. No feeling in it whatsoever. 🙄… My wife had it in both wrists than Kienböck’s disease! Thay had to screw a titanium rod to her wrist bone! |
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Post by inger on May 9, 2024 22:20:08 GMT -5
I have it in both hands, but I had the right hand repaired surgically about 35 years ago. The left hand is kind of an off and on thing, so I’ve just kind of put it off. My dad had it in his right hand and he never got it fixed. He wound up with no feeling at all in his right hand. Remarkably, he bowled right handed by using his left hand to push his fingers into the holes in the ball. He maintained an average around the mid-160’s doing that. There’s a six week recovery time and I just don’t like going nighty-night for surgery… It’s getting worse though (at times), so I’m getting tempted to give in…. I had the beginnings of it in my right wrist years ago. What worked for me was also learning to use a mouse left handed and then switching if either wrist started to bark. Also I changed to using vertical mice (there are lots of brands, I like Anker). Almost forgot to mention, but taking vitamin B6 has helped me quite a bit. After a while I also added B12. For some reason if you take too much B6 it renders the B12 useless… |
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Post by bomberhojoe on May 10, 2024 8:00:55 GMT -5
I had the beginnings of it in my right wrist years ago. What worked for me was also learning to use a mouse left handed and then switching if either wrist started to bark. Also I changed to using vertical mice (there are lots of brands, I like Anker). Almost forgot to mention, but taking vitamin B6 has helped me quite a bit. After a while I also added B12. For some reason if you take too much B6 it renders the B12 useless… Well, that would be B18, wouldn't it?  |
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Post by bigjeep on May 10, 2024 8:48:32 GMT -5
Yep, that school on Route 11 is today Keystone College -- my brother-in-law from nearby Clarks Summit went there for two years -- but when Matty was there it was Keystone Academy, which he attended before going to Bucknell. I can't believe they would have sold that memorabilia. You probably know that the land the school is built on was previously owned by Matty's mother's family. I can easily believe having a sports hero you never personally saw -- I have a lot of them, Matty among them. So you have "Pitching In A Pinch?" I have that somewhere in my stack, although I haven't read it in awhile. It was a very illuminating look at how he approached pitching. One thing that always stuck with me was how he was adamant about saving your fastest pitches for key situations, because he noted how pitchers who were always throwing their hardest were constantly getting hurt. Sounds like good advice for today, doesn't it? A good bio of Mathewson was Ray Robinson's "Matty: An American Hero." Robinson also wrote a bio of Lou Gehrig, another sports hero I never saw play. The 93-year-old Mathewson neighbor I interviewed in 1979 was six years younger than Christy, but was a classmate of Christy's brother Hank, who also pitched for Keystone and very briefly for the Giants. I long ago lost my notes from that day and never bothered to publish the story -- among other things I was getting married in a few weeks and had just started a new job and was therefore somewhat distracted -- if memory serves his name was Fisk (not related to Carlton, I asked) and he was around when the youngest Mathewson brother, 18-year-old Nick, committed suicide in the family barn. He recalled the commotion when the body was discovered -- he had shot himself several hours earlier -- and was still alive, although not for much longer. Mr. Fisk said he went with Hank to get a doctor and helped put Nick in an ambulance to take him to a hospital in Scranton. Nick was a freshman at Lafayette College, and before that also pitched for Keystone and actually did better than Christy or Hank. John McGraw doted on Nick and used to give him all kinds of Giants merchandise (much of which Nick apparently sold to make a little extra money.) Although Christy Mathewson was only 45 years old when he died, he far outlived either of his brothers. Hank died at 30 from tuberculosis. Matty was covering the 1919 World Series for one of the New York newspapers. Before Game One was more than a few innings old, he noted that something was fishy and said so publicly. There is very little film footage of Matty that I am aware of. The main one I've seen is a very short clip showing him doing warmup throws. I know that somewhere I have seen clips of McGraw in which you can hear him speak. Supposedly McGraw had only two photographs of ball players in his office -- one of Matty and one of Ross Youngs, an outstanding hitter for the Giants (and in the HOF) who died at the age of 30. Somewhere out there in the cold dark world perhaps there is a child clutching his picture of young inger, the player he never saw play. There’s hope after all…As for old inger, he’s stuck wearing his carpal tunnel brace on his left wrist today because of a flare up. I woke up last night once and I had to check to see if I still had a hand. No feeling in it whatsoever. 🙄… I usually go from memory, maybe a mistake, but I think Matty was Manager of the Cincinnati team for awhile! I have the book "when the grass was green"? A fascinating book about the early years! He had taped their interviews and latter they made a TV Documentary of those tapes! |
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Post by pippsheadache on May 10, 2024 9:18:21 GMT -5
Somewhere out there in the cold dark world perhaps there is a child clutching his picture of young inger, the player he never saw play. There’s hope after all…As for old inger, he’s stuck wearing his carpal tunnel brace on his left wrist today because of a flare up. I woke up last night once and I had to check to see if I still had a hand. No feeling in it whatsoever. 🙄… I usually go from memory, maybe a mistake, but I think Matty was Manager of the Cincinnati team for awhile! I have the book "when the grass was green"? A fascinating book about the early years! He had taped their interviews and latter they made a TV Documentary of those tapes! No, you have it right Jeep. Matty wanted to manage, but that wasn't going to happen with the Giants with McGraw in place, so pretty much as a favor they traded him to the Reds at the tail-end of his playing career in 1916. He was named player-manager, but he didn't do much pitching. He managed them until 1918, when he joined the Chemical Warfare Service of the US Army. It was during a training exercise that he was gassed, which made him susceptible to the tuberculosis that eventually took his life seven years later. After the war he coached for McGraw for a few years, and then was part of an investment group that bought the Boston Braves. He was named team President, but he was too ill by then to participate much. Yes, "Baseball When The Grass Was Green" is a wonderful book, written by the renowned baseball historian Donald Honig. A lot of great interviews with players like Charlie Gehringer and Lefty Grove and Bob Feller and Spud Chandler. A similar book that went further back into baseball history (and which inspired Honig) was "The Glory Of Their Times" by Lawrence Ritter. One of my favorite baseball books ever, with interviews of players from the late 1890s on up to the 1920s. Wahoo Sam Crawford, Lefty O'Doul, Stan Coveleski and many more, including a couple of your old McGraw Giants Rube Marquard and Fred Snodgrass. |
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Post by bigjeep on May 10, 2024 11:04:56 GMT -5
I usually go from memory, maybe a mistake, but I think Matty was Manager of the Cincinnati team for awhile! I have the book "when the grass was green"? A fascinating book about the early years! He had taped their interviews and latter they made a TV Documentary of those tapes! No, you have it right Jeep. Matty wanted to manage, but that wasn't going to happen with the Giants with McGraw in place, so pretty much as a favor they traded him to the Reds at the tail-end of his playing career in 1916. He was named player-manager, but he didn't do much pitching. He managed them until 1918, when he joined the Chemical Warfare Service of the US Army. It was during a training exercise that he was gassed, which made him susceptible to the tuberculosis that eventually took his life seven years later. After the war he coached for McGraw for a few years, and then was part of an investment group that bought the Boston Braves. He was named team President, but he was too ill by then to participate much. Yes, "Baseball When The Grass Was Green" is a wonderful book, written by the renowned baseball historian Donald Honig. A lot of great interviews with players like Charlie Gehringer and Lefty Grove and Bob Feller and Spud Chandler. A similar book that went further back into baseball history (and which inspired Honig) was "The Glory Of Their Times" by Lawrence Ritter. One of my favorite baseball books ever, with interviews of players from the late 1890s on up to the 1920s. Wahoo Sam Crawford, Lefty O'Doul, Stan Coveleski and many more, including a couple of your old McGraw Giants Rube Marquard and Fred Snodgrass. Oops! Bad memory! "The Glory of their times" was the book! That was the book they made into a TV Documentary! I have both books! |
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Post by rizzuto on May 10, 2024 11:09:27 GMT -5
Almost forgot to mention, but taking vitamin B6 has helped me quite a bit. After a while I also added B12. For some reason if you take too much B6 it renders the B12 useless… Well, that would be B18, wouldn't it? You beat me to it!  |
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Post by inger on May 10, 2024 14:45:57 GMT -5
Well, that would be B18, wouldn't it? You beat me to it! I B18 way back in 1972… |
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Post by fwclipper51 on May 10, 2024 15:21:29 GMT -5
Has anyone read the Fred Lieb book the "Only the Ball was White?"
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