Arizona republican., 1912-05-12
.BIG LEAGUER
 AT NINETEEN
Matty" Mathewson, of the Giants Was Back Lots Ball Player and College Athlete Before Breaking Into Big Company.

How Christy MatheWson became a lta league pitcher is a story of ath- I-,.c romance rapid and romantic enough to heiehten the widest flight .f fmagiuatiou of those youngsters ..no dream of fame as bah tosser. Al 4n age when most ambitious ball l.s..- are just learning to swing
 bat. Mattr was playing real ball in one of the minor leagues. and dur ing that period he was invariably playing with and against men who ,y.r. older both in years and eN- u.rieuce
 Mattv's soundest advice to m as uir.ue pitcher is that upon which his own success was fouuded-control of th. bah He freely admits that his early determination not to sacrifice control To any other element of the game has had m important bearing llr1n his career How he practiced throwing stones merely for amuse- tu,ut in the town of FactoryviIle, Pa when he was nine years old. how he pitched balls all day long at T com paui1u who stood up against q barn are incidents of his early training which he delights in recalling.
 Hc was mascot of the town team. IIr chased an the wild fouls that no one else was willing to run after Fl. ur1cticcd pitching "ins, 'outs' and drops" Three years later when rhr F3ctoryvHle pitcher failed to show mp for a game he Fld his first opportunity to play ball.
 II was not without a test. how oyer. The team was composed of biz. braWuy men. who had enjoyed aH the hero ro-worshipping that Fac toryyile could give them These players acted as critics while that Mathewson kid" pitched for two solid hours After the best batsmen of the town had been stacked mp against him. he succeeded in flaming out the captain He also won the game for his team
 Next fall found Mattv nlaying sec oud base on the team of keEstono academy and the following year. al th. age of l4. he was captain When vacation time came around, he re- turned uo- FaetorYviiIe to pitch, but Ic was soon bought by q rival team in a nearby town, receiving exactly un4 dollar game and playing with the big groWn-ups.
 Graduating from Keystone in '9> he went to Bucl5neI college. While in Scranton that summer q Y. NJ. C X. game in which he struck out fif- teen men did much to focus attention uuon him and when he later went tY Honesville.. Pa. he WIS given tWen- tv dollars a month and his board to pitch for the town team. Before the season ended he was offered $9o month to pitch for the Taunton club in the New England league bat this club disbanded and he returned 10 HonesviIe. which place, Matty says. became an important milepost in his career. It is here that he discovered and practiced the fade away" which later became of great value to him.
 In the fall of the year. returning to Rucknen. he played fullback upon the college football team. During q football game with the University of Pcnusylvania he scored two field golIs. which feat brought him to the attention of "Phenom" John Smith. former manager of a New England league club. Smith signed him up mp in the Virginia league with the Norfolk club.
 His contract with Norfolk at 800 per month carried him through a brilliant season of twenty-One victor ies out of twenty three games
 This was his last minor league record "Phenom" John smith sold Mattv to the New York Nationals and he became big league pitcher when he was just nineteen years old The brilliant work he has done slnce 1900 is a matter of vivid recollection. to every fan.
 While Matty got bad start in 1900. subsequent seasons brought his average up to a remarkable polnt. ont of 421 games which he has pitched in National league fights, he scored 2S9 victories and 132 defeats. In twelve years his average has been =ixtv-eight per cent and when 1t IS recalled that his first three years in vnlvcd winning with a team that was a tail ender. his record becomes the more appreciated.
 The Giant stars best season was in 1904 when he won 3 games and lost but eight. In eleven post-season games against the Athletics, Red SoX and Tanks in the American league, inc giant twirler permitted only sev onteen runs. What is equally re- narkable is that in 99 innings played in post-season games only 13 de- ,aloned q tally and in 86 innings with Matty in the box not a player reached home.
 The whole sOuled interest or the baseball world has never been held stronger nor more continuously thah 1Tattv has held it and the presenta- tiop of q costly motor car to him is reaarded as a worthy tribute to a great athlete and gentleman.
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