The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball
Dec 2007 · Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
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About this ebook
The legendary 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.
"A fine baseball book but just as fine a study of American popular culture." — Booklist, starred review
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.
"A fine baseball book but just as fine a study of American popular culture." — Booklist, starred review
The legendary 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 ...
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7 reviews
About the author
Frank Deford is a Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated, is heard every Wednesday on NPR's Morning Edition, and is a regular correspondent on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of fourteen books, two of which have been made into movies, including Everybody's All-American with Dennis Quaid and Jessica Lange. He has been voted U.S. Sportswriter of the Year six times, and GQ magazine has called him, simply, "the world's greatest sportswriter." He has also won both an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award. He lives in Westport, Connecticut.
Frank Deford is a Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated, is heard every Wednesday on NPR's Morning Edition, and is a regular correspondent on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of fourteen books, two of which have been made into movies, including Everybody's All-American with De...
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