Bobby Mathews

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Bobby Mathews

Pitcher
Born: November 21, 1851(1851-11-21)
Baltimore, Maryland
Died: April 17, 1898(1898-04-17) (aged 46)
Baltimore, Maryland
Batted: Right Threw: Right 
MLB debut
May 4, 1871 for the Fort Wayne Kekiongas
Last MLB appearance
October 10, 1887 for the Philadelphia Athletics
Career statistics
Win-Loss record     297-248
ERA     2.89
Strikeouts     1,366
Teams
  National Association of Base Ball Players
Baltimore Marylands (1869–1870)
  League Player
Fort Wayne Kekiongas (1871)
Baltimore Canaries (1872)
New York Mutuals (1873-1876)
Cincinnati Reds (1877)
Providence Grays (1879, 1881)
Boston Red Caps (1881-1882)
Philadelphia Athletics (1883-1887)
Career highlights and awards

Robert T. Mathews (November 21, 1851 – April 17, 1898) was an American right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher for twenty years beginning in the late 1860s. He is credited as being one of the inventors of the spitball pitch,[1][2] which was rediscovered or reintroduced to the major leagues after he died. He is also credited with the first legal pitch which broke away from the batter.[1][2] He is listed at 5 feet 5 inches tall and 140 pounds, which is small for a pro athlete even in his time, when the average height of an American male in the mid-19th Century was 5 feet 7 & 1/4 inches tall.

Mathews was born in 1851, in Baltimore, Maryland, and he played as a teenager with the Maryland club of that city, and he made the team a dangerous one. For the 1871 season, he and some other Maryland players signed with the Fort Wayne Kekiongas. On May 4, 1871 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he pitched a shutout in the inaugural game of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NA), the first professional league.[1][2] Mathews umpired a few games between 1871 and 1888[3] and signed with the regular staff of the Players League in 1890, returning to the AA in 1891.

Over his 16-year career, he had 297 wins, 248 losses, 525 complete games, with a career earned run average of 2.89. He had 1366 strikeouts compared with 533 walks. He won 20 games 8 times, including 42 in 1874 with the New York Mutuals of the National Association, and is the only player to win 50 games or to pitch 100 games[2] in each of three major leagues.[1] He is the 24th winningest pitcher in baseball.[4]

He died 1898 in Baltimore, at the age of 46, of paresis caused by syphilis,[5] and is interred at New Cathedral Cemetery, also in Baltimore.[3]

Contents

[edit] See also

Portal icon Biography portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Pietrusza, David; Matthew Silverman; Gershman, Michael (2000). Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia. New York: Total Sports. p. 720. ISBN 1-892129-34-5. 
  2. ^ a b c d Charlton, James; Shatzkin, Mike; Holtje, Stephen (1990). The Ballplayers: baseball's ultimate biographical reference. New York: Arbor House/William Morrow. p. 679. ISBN 0-87795-984-6. 
  3. ^ a b "Retrosheet". http://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/M/Pmathb101.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-26. 
  4. ^ "The Official Site of Major League Baseball: Stats: Historical Leaders". http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/leaders.jsp?c_id=mlb&Submit=Submit&sortByStat=W&baseballScope=mlb&statType=2&timeFrame=3&timeSubFrame=0. Retrieved 2008-06-26. 
  5. ^ "Too Young To Die". thedeadballera.com. http://www.thedeadballera.com/tooyoung.html. Retrieved 2009-03-29. 

[edit] Further reading

  • Wright, Marshall D. (2000). The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0779-4. 

[edit] External links
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bobby_Mathews&oldid=457367864"
Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages