Editing Christy Mathewson (section)

==World War I and afterward==
Late in the 1918 season, Mathewson enlisted in the [[United States Army]] during World War I. His wife Jane was very much opposed to the decision, but Mathewson insisted on going.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hartley|first=Michael|title=Christy Mathewson: a biography|year=2004|publisher=McFarland & Co.|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=978-0-7864-1653-0}}</ref> He served overseas as a captain in the newly formed [[Chemical Corps|Chemical Warfare Service]] (CWS) along with [[Ty Cobb]]. Mathewson served with the [[American Expeditionary Forces]] until February 1919 and was discharged later that month.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Official Roster of Ohio Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, World War 1917-18|publisher = Ohio Adjutant-General's Department|year = 1926|location = Columbus, Ohio|pages = 10886}}</ref>

Mathewson developed [[tuberculosis]] shortly after his military service. It was widely assumed his disease was caused by his work with the chemical warfare service, largely due to the conventional wisdom that tuberculosis more easily infects lungs that have been damaged by chemical gases.<ref name="historicbaseball" /> This narrative was given further credence from a passage in [[Al Stump]]'s 1961 biography of Ty Cobb, which says that Cobb and Mathewson were both accidentally gassed during a chemical training exercise in Choignes, France where eight men died; Mathewson purportedly told Cobb afterwards that he had 'got a good dose of that stuff. I feel terrible.'<ref>{{cite web |title=Did Baseball Great Christy Mathewson Die of Chemical Warfare? |url=https://insidesources.com/did-baseball-great-christy-mathewson-die-of-chemical-warfare/ |website=Inside Sources |access-date=13 January 2025 |date=24 October 2018}}</ref> This account has widely been accepted as true, although it is not without its detractors: [[Branch Rickey]], who also served in the CWS alongside Mathewson, flatly denied the incident; other historians have noted that Stump's book, published after Cobb's death, is sensationalized and generally unreliable.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leeke |first1=Jim |title=The Gas and Flame Men: Baseball and the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I |date=2024 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |pages=124–29}}</ref> Some historians question whether the incident ever occurred. Mathewson himself never mentioned a training accident during his lifetime, but he acknowledged that he had inhaled lethal gases on various occasions while demonstrating gas shells to students: "We were careful, but there is no doubt the accumulated gases affected my lungs," he later said.<ref>Leeke, p. 127</ref>

Although he returned to serve as a coach for the Giants from 1919 to 1921, he spent a good portion of that time in [[Saranac Lake, New York|Saranac Lake]] fighting the tuberculosis, initially at the [[Trudeau Sanitorium]], and later in a house that he had built.<ref name="baseballlibrary" /> In 1923, Mathewson returned to professional baseball when Giants attorney [[Emil Fuchs (baseball)|Emil Fuchs]] and he put together a syndicate that bought the [[Boston Braves (baseball)|Boston Braves]]. Although initial plans called for Mathewson to be principal owner and team president, his health had deteriorated so much that he could perform only nominal duties. He turned over the presidency to Fuchs after the season.