The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1922-07-21
THE FIGHT OF A CLEAN SPORTS.
.. MAN

There is no name in the annals Of
baseball in this country which has
fingered affectionately so many years
in the memory of millions of fans as
has the name of Christy Mathewson,
says a writer in a recent issue of The
Outlook. Only last week an emotional
wave of interest again swept over the
United States when this idol of other
years was reported in every important
newspaper from the Atlantic to the
Pacific to have hurled the first ball
in a "bush" league game at Saranac
Lake, straight and true across the
plate for a "strike." 1t was the only
ball he pitched, but some two thous-
and persons, including old friends from
lear and far, gathered in that secluded
health center to see Mathewson do it.
He appears to be winning a grim
fight Of years with tuberculosis, on
tracted, if memory serves US right,
with the American EXpeditionary
Forces; winning it by the exercise to
the utmost of the highest human quail
ity Of perfect self-control which made
him so long a pre-eminent victor on
the baseball diamond. He was a HUI
man thorobred in this field of National
sport. He was %applauded by millions
for his character as much as for his
victories, and the chief quality of his
character was ~self-control. Nobody
who has ever seen him pitch can for
get it. The rest of the team might
go to pieces. but Mathewson never did.
Batters might find his curves furious
1y for the time being, but he coolly
bided the turn of the tide. He was
directly credited by the experts with
winning one of the Worlds Series sin
gle handed. Our recollection is that in
this series the opposing team did not
score a run against him. He never
disputed an umpire's decision. He
might look whimsically and regretful-
1y in an umpire's direction, but he
never said a word. He was a marked
contrast to the latest popular idol,
Babe Ruth, whose self-indulgent two
hundred and fifty pounds seems al
ways to be brawling with the umpires,
and who seems to be always wishing
to thrash the grand stand whenever
he strikes out and the grand stand
jeers.
Mathewson was a graduate of Buck
nell University, in Pennsylvania, and
he was an intelligent thorobred in his
chosen vocation. Breeding and rain
ing will tell, whether in man or beast.
Joe Patchen was the most famous race
horse of his time, because added to his
other qualities was a perfect self-con-
troll. When the whole field of horses
came down toward the judges stand
and the bell rang for them to try
again because they were not fairly
in line when they passed the starting
point, all the other horses might GO
tearing down the field in a frenzy OF
excitement before they were pulled up;
but as soon as he heard the bell Joe
Patchen would stop suddenly as if he
had a stroke of apoplexy and, turning
quietly around, would walk slowl,
back to the original position at a great
saving of energy and nerve over hi.
adversaries. But he was usually goot
to win three out of four heats in any
race in which he entered. He wa.
everything that every other horse was
plus self-control.
1t is Christy M~athewson's huma,
self-control which has shown itself in
highly intelligent, unblemished char
acter and career, which brought hin
unprecedented success on the baseball
diamond, and which is now probabl,
happily winning for him his fight witt
one of the grimmest and the mos
subtle of all physical foes.
Good breeding and good disciplin
count heavily. One of the Harvar
rowing coaches at New London tn
other day is credited with a bit O
philosophy in describing what bring
victory in a grueling four-mile race
He is reported to have said to his me
that they way they would perform i
the first mile depended upon thei
training, in the second mile upon no,
they personally had lived, in the thir
mile upon how their fathers had livee
and in the fourth mile upon how thei
ancestors generally had lived.
Christy Mathewson has not only
good character and technical training
but he must also have a good pedigree
Last year, when it became know
that he needed funds in his fight q
Saranac, a single benefit game on tn
Polo Grounds in New York netted hin
according to u recollection, frol
thirty to forty thousand dollars. An
there was nc limit to the extent of h
backing by the vast multitude of hi
admirers. 1t was not that he was
great sportsman pitcher, although h
was that. There have been other grea
pitchers. But the thought of the kin
of man Christy Mathewson had alway