Customer Reviews

The Player: Christy Mathewson, Baseball, and the American Century

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It's been almost 90 years since Christy Mathewson last threw a pitch in a major league baseball game, and more than 75 years since his untimely death from tuberculosis. Yet time has left his on-the-field achievements and his greater legacy undiminished. His 373 career wins are still third highest in major league history. In this slim, gracefully written volume Philip Seib explores not only Mathewson's role in the game, but in the context of the larger society as well.

Professional baseball at the dawn of the 20th century was still seen as a haven for rowdies. The college-educated Mathewson represented a new standard, one in harmony with President Theodore Roosevelt's affirmation of the active life. As America moved toward involvement in World War I under the idealistic Woodrow Wilson, Mathewson's willingness to serve was once again in synch with the mood of the era. When Matty stood against the corruption that infected the game in the late teens, it was a precursor to greed and scandals that seemed to dominate national life in the 1920s.

Seib's book is a worthy tribute to a great player, and more significantly, a great man.--William C. Hall

This book is a decent read but it is less a biography of Mathewson than it is a commentary on the times and events that he lived through. I had hoped to learn about who Christy Mathewson was and what made him so great and instead I felt like I read an overview of the major events in baseball and history during the late 1800's to the mid 1900's.

Considering the book is less than 200 pages long I wondered what this book would tell me about Christy Mathewson I haven't already read somewhere else. Author Philip Seib emphasizes the positive role model Matty played both as a player and as a private citizen. The author also provides us with details of former major leaguer Eddie Grant who lost his life fighting in World War I. His monument used to appear in center field in the Polo Grounds, and I was pleased to read details I hadn't read before. Mathewson enlisted in World War I, and came in contact with poisonous gas in a training drill in Europe shortly before The Great War ended. He returned from Europe to help McGraw as a coach with the Giants, and once again encountered the crooked Hal Chase whom Matty had in his brief tenure as manager of the Cincinnati Reds after his (Matty's) playing days were over. He was an observer of the 1919 World Series between the White Sox and Reds, and to his dismay, observed what he believed to be crookedness in the play of the Chicago team. His cough persisted, and progressed to tuberculosis. Matty spent time at Saranac Lake in upstate New York where the dry air was thought to be helpful to patients. He felt well enough to join the Boston Braves in the front office, but had to return to Saranac Lake where he died during the 1925 World Series. This would be an excellent book for both beginning readers of Christy Mathewson, or those who have a more extensive knowledge of one of the first five members elected to Baseball's Hall of Fame.

When I was given this book, the gift-bearer informed me that it was the perfect gift for me, "... a book about baseball AND U.S. history.". Being the grateful recipient of said gift I of course bit my tongue, didn't respond, "How do you separate the two?", and accepted the gift in the spirit it was given. Now, after reading it, I realize how smart my niece is. The book is indeed about both, and without wandering too far from its subject, (Christy, in case there is some confusion), is a very engaging read. Similar books about this time period in baseball tend to get repetitive and somewhat choppy to read by piecing together newspaper reports and box scores. This author alleviates that problem by also tracking events in the U.S., (and the world as 1914 approaches), while Christy pitches his way through his baseball career. This is recommended for baseball novices, hard core fans and anyone in between as it's a nicely written book.

There is not enough baseball detail in what could have been an interesting book. Seib's efforts to set the career of BIG SIX in a broader context is laudable, but misses the point for a book this brief and this short. Some people devote their lives to the history of the world's greatest game. Seib is not one of them. The mechanics of his prose will not put you to sleep, but do not linger in the mind either. But the glaring error of this book is selling Christy short. Seib can bring himself to devote less than two pages to one of the greatest World Series performances in history, where Christy spun three shutouts. While some baseball books devolve into pitch-by-pitch tedium, more detail here is demanded.

If there is a better Christy book out there I will consider reading it. Do not waste your time with this one.

The Player is an enjoyable, quick read with several charming stories about Mathewson and his time. However, there is surprisingly little detail about games and achievements and the year to year growth of Mathewson into a great player. Seib does mention the year he pitched 3 shutouts in the World Series and a few other astounding achievements, his incredible accuracy, his college years, his relationship with McGraw and others. It is also nice to see all this put in the context of the time but too often the context is often close to irrelevant in its detail and Mathewson gets lost in the mix. One also expects a summary of stats but none is included--a baseball fan expects that much on the back of a baseball card. Surely a page of the book could have been devoted to it.

Bought this book for my husband. Christy Mathewson is his hero, he found out a few new pieces of information from this book and said it was a great read!

I agree with just about all the positive and negative critisms I've read here about this book. It's definitely worth reading...but just don't expect too much.

"The Player" provided a trip back in time to what it was like playing ball around the turn of the century through the times of the first World War.

To understand what Mathewson meant to the game itself is truly amazing. Not only being a phonomenal pitcher with exceptional control, he realized that he was a role model for others, not only the young kids that idolized him, but the everyday american worker. To know what he gave of himself to others off the ball field, his charity work, volunteering for WWI at the age of 37, gives us a better insight to the individual.

The book also tells of his attempts to clean up the game, before the Black Sox scandal. He knew it was going on, tried to warn others, but no one would listen.

A great read if you want to get a much clearer insight into one of the greatest ball players of all time. One that is unfortunatelly forgotten by too many in today's game.

As a fan of baseball history, I have been looking for a modern, definitive biography of Christy Mathewson ever since I grew to admire him many years ago. I was hoping that Philip Seib's The Player would be that elusive work, but I was wrong. Although it covers the major events of Matty's life, Seib works very hard to put him in context as the first major baseball star and the times that he lived in, so what we're left with is less of a biography and more of a social history.

This is all well and good, and the premise is an interesting one, except that Seib doesn't take it far enough and when he tries to expound on his theory, he ends up giving more info on other figures of the times like Billy Sunday and Woodrow Wilson than on Mathewson.

Almost contradictorally, the main problem is that it all just feels too thin. At less than 200 pages it's a one and a half day read at best and you come away not knowing anything more about Mathewson than you would reading any history of baseball. Were I Seib's editor, I would have recommended that he go in the opposite direction and really blow out his research. Joseph Durso wrote an excellent double biography of John McGraw and Casey Stengel that captured the general history of American society as well as baseball and that is clearly what Seib is aspiring to but falls short.

I don't want to knock the book too much since I enjoy general history as much as anyone, but I guess I just expected so much more. Also, Seib labors in spots to draw his conclusions and ends up being extremely repetitive. His reverence for Mathewson is well-appreciated, but borders on overindulgence.

If you are interested in reading more on Mathewson, I would recommend seeking out the Jonathan Yardley essay "The Real Frank Merriwell" for a terrific mini-bio and tribute to a great pitcher.