Pitching in a Pinch or Baseball from the Inside by Christy Mathewson

Pitching in a Pinch or Baseball from the Inside Reviews

• 
  Robert Papas

  Many years before Jim Brosnan set the sports literary world on its ear with "The Long Season", a number of "tell-all" books about baseball found their way to market. One of the earliest, and one of the best, is "Pitching in a Pinch or Baseball from the Inside."
  
  Ghosted by Christy Walsh, the book talks about the small-ball era of baseball as seen through the eyes of Christy Mathewson, the immortal "Big Six" of the New York Giants. For its time, the book is fairly controversial in that it contains honest looks at managers, players, coaches and umpires -- and their foibles -- along with perhaps the best examination of the legendary John McGraw in print at that time.
  
  There are a number of concepts in the book that are still relevant to baseball today, but sadly not as many as the purist might like. The arts of base-stealing, bunting, bench-jockeying and sign-stealing are discussed in great detail. (Mathewson's position on sign stealing: it's fine if it's done honestly.)
  
  Yet, for its time, the book is both relevant and readable, with moments of humor interspersed with stories about the people who built the game in the early 20th Century. Back then, the game was made up of tough, hard players and social norms not being the same as what they are today, interesting personal situations are encountered. Mathewson wrote about them, which makes the book stand out.
  
  On the list of great baseball diaries and recollections, it takes its place alongside Joe Garagiola's "Baseball is a Funny Game", both of Brosnan's works, "The Long Season" and "Pennant Race", and even Jim Bouton's "Ball Four" in some ways. That said, the player also known as "The Christian Gentleman" would not attempt to shock his audience the way Bouton, and to a lesser extent Brosnan, did.
  
  The personal stories are engaging. For instance, 19-year old Fred Merkle's famous 1908 baserunning blunder is discussed in detail. Every student of the dead-ball era knows the story, but Mathewson's tale adds to the story in describing Merkle's personal misery as the Giants lost a late September lead and finally the pennant, to the Chicago Cubs. Feeling responsible for the club's misfortune, Merkle begged McGraw for his release, but the manager responded that he wanted tough players like Merkle (a "car full", Mathewson quotes him as saying), refused to release him and watched as Merkle became one of the best firstbasemen in the National League.
  
  It's a short read, engaging and fun, even if naturally dated.