Editing Christy Mathewson (section)

===New York Giants (1900–1916)===
In July 1900, the New York Giants purchased his contract from Norfolk for $1,500 ({{Inflation|US|1500|1899|r=-3|fmt=eq}}).<ref name="baseballlibrary" /><ref name="br" /> Between July and September 1900, Mathewson appeared in six games for the Giants. He started one of those games and compiled a 0–3 record. Displeased with his performance, the Giants returned him to Norfolk and demanded their money back.<ref name="baseballlibrary" /> Later that month, the [[Cincinnati Reds]] picked up Mathewson off the Norfolk roster. On December 15, 1900, the Reds quickly traded Mathewson back to the Giants for [[Amos Rusie]].<ref name="br">{{cite web|title=Christy Mathewson|website=Baseball-Reference.com |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/m/mathech01.shtml|access-date=January 31, 2007}}</ref>

[[File:Mathewson in NY uniform.jpg|thumb|Mathewson in his New York Giants uniform]]
During his 17-year career, Mathewson won 373 games and lost 188 for a .665 winning percentage. His career [[earned run average]] of 2.13 and 79 career [[shutout#Baseball|shutouts]] are among the best all time for pitchers, and his 373 [[win (baseball)|wins]] are still number one in the National League, tied with [[Grover Cleveland Alexander]]. He employed a good fastball, outstanding control, and, especially a new pitch he termed the "fadeaway" (later known in baseball as the "[[screwball]]"), which he learned from teammate [[Dave Williams (1900s pitcher)|Dave Williams]] in 1898.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers|author=Bill James|author2=Rob Neyer|author-link=Bill James|author2-link=Rob Neyer|name-list-style=amp|year=2004|page=296|title-link=The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers}}</ref>

This reference is challenged by Ken Burns documentary ''[[Baseball (TV series)|Baseball]]'' in which it is stated that Mathewson learned his "fadeaway" from [[Rube Foster|Andrew "Rube" Foster]] when New York Giants manager [[John McGraw]] quietly hired Rube to show the Giants bullpen what he knew. Many baseball historians consider this story apocryphal.

Mathewson recorded 2,507 career [[strikeout]]s against only 848 [[base on balls|walks]]. He is famous for his 25 pitching duels with [[Mordecai Brown|Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown]], who won 13 of the duels against Mathewson's 11, with one no-decision.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://baseballbiography.com/christy-mathewson-1878|title=''Christy Mathewson Biography''|publisher=baseballbiography.com|date=September 4, 1916|access-date=April 3, 2009}}</ref>

Mathewson was a very good-hitting pitcher in his major league career, posting a .215 [[batting average (baseball)|batting average]] (362-for-1687) with
151 [[run (baseball)|runs]], seven [[home runs]], and 167 [[runs batted in]]. In 10 of his 17 years in the majors, he was in double figures in runs batted in, with a season-high of 20 in 1903. He batted .281 (9-for-32) in 11 World Series games.

By 1903, Mathewson's stature was such that when he briefly signed a contract with the [[Baltimore Orioles|St. Louis Browns]] of the American League, he was thought to be the spark the Browns needed to win the pennant. The Browns had finished a strong second in 1902, five games behind the [[Oakland Athletics|Philadelphia Athletics]]. They offered him four times what he was making with the Giants. However, as part of the settlement that ended the two-year war between the American and National Leagues, Mathewson and Browns owner [[Robert Hedges (baseball)|Robert Lee Hedges]] tore up the contract. Hedges later said that ensuring the return of peace to the game was more important, even if it meant effectively giving up a pennant.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/topic/st-louis-browns-team-ownership-history/|title=St. Louis Browns team ownership history|author1=Dennis Pajot|author2=Greg Erion|publisher=[[Society for American Baseball Research]]|date=October 2, 2018}}</ref>

From 1900 to 1904, Mathewson established himself as a premier pitcher. Posting low earned run averages and winning nearly 100 games, Mathewson helped lead the Giants to their first National League title in 1903, and a berth in [[1903 World Series|first World Series]]. Though no World Series was held in 1904, the Giants captured the pennant, prompting McGraw to proclaim them as the best team in the world.

Mathewson strove even harder in 1905. After switching to catcher, [[Roger Bresnahan]] had begun collaborating with Mathewson, whose advanced memory of hitter weaknesses paved the way for a historic season. Pinpoint control guided Mathewson's pitches to Bresnahan's glove. In 338 innings, Mathewson walked only 64 batters. He shut out opposing teams eight times, pitching entire games in brief 90-minute sessions. Besides winning 31 games, Mathewson recorded an earned run average of 1.28 and 206 strikeouts. He led the National League in all three categories, earning him the [[Major League Baseball Triple Crown|Triple Crown]].<ref name="RRBio">{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=Ray|title=Matty : an American hero|url=https://archive.org/details/mattyamericanher0000robi|url-access=registration|year=1994|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-509263-9}}</ref>

Mathewson's Giants won the [[1905 World Series]] over the [[Philadelphia Athletics]]. Mathewson was the starting pitcher in game one, and pitched a four-hit [[shutouts in baseball|shutout]] for the victory. Three days later, with the series tied 1–1, he pitched another four-hit shutout. Then, two days later in game five, he threw a six-hit shutout to clinch the series for the Giants. In a span of only six days, Mathewson had pitched three complete games without allowing a run, while giving up only 14 hits.

The next year, Mathewson lost much of his edge, owing to an early-season diagnosis of [[diphtheria]]. McGraw pulled over 260 innings from him, but these were plagued with struggle. Though he maintained a 22–12 record, his 2.97 earned run average was well above the league average of 2.62. His 1.271 [[walks plus hits per innings pitched]], quite uncharacteristic of him, was due to an increased number of hits and walks.

[[File:Christy Mathewson 1913.jpg|thumb|left|Mathewson with the Giants, {{circa}} 1913]]
By 1908, Mathewson was back on top as the league's elite pitcher. Winning the most games of his career, 37, coupled with a 1.43 earned run average and 259 strikeouts, he claimed a second triple crown. He also led the league in starts, innings pitched, complete games, and shutouts, and held hitters to an exceptionally low 0.827 walks plus hits per innings pitched. He even led the league in saves, racking up 5 of them in 12 relief appearances. Unfortunately, the Giants were unable to take home the pennant due to what was ultimately known as [[Merkle's Boner]], an incident that cost the Giants a crucial game against the Chicago Cubs, who eventually defeated the Giants in the standings by one game.

Mathewson returned for an outstanding 1909 season; though not as dominant as the previous year, he posted a better earned run average (1.14), and a record of 25–6. He repeated a strong performance in 1910 and then again in 1911, when the Giants captured their first pennant since 1905. The Giants ultimately lost the [[1911 World Series]] to the Philadelphia Athletics, the same team they had defeated for the 1905 championship. Mathewson and [[Rube Marquard]] allowed two game-winning home runs to Hall of Famer [[Home Run Baker|Frank Baker]], earning him the nickname, "Home Run".<ref name="RRBio" /> Mathewson, the team's "star pitcher", signed a three-year contract with the Giants in late 1910, for the upcoming 1911, 1912 and 1913 seasons, the first time he had signed a contract over a year in length.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Matty Signs up for Three Years |url=http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn85054113/1910-11-15/ed-1/seq-7/ |work=The Ogdensburg Journal |location=Ogdensburg, NY |date=November 15, 1910 |access-date=October 16, 2019 }}</ref>

In 1912, Mathewson gave another stellar performance. Capturing the pennant, the Giants were fueled by the stolen-base game and a superior pitching staff capped by Rube Marquard, the "11,000-dollar lemon" who turned around to win 26 games, 19 of them consecutively. In the [[1912 World Series]], the Giants faced the Boston Red Sox, the 1904 American League pennant winners who would have faced the Giants in the World Series that year had one been played. Though Mathewson threw three complete games and maintained an earned run average below 1.00, numerous errors by the Giants, including a lazy popup dropped by Fred Snodgrass in the eighth game (Game 2 was a tie), cost them the championship.<ref>{{cite book|last=Vaccaro|first=Mike|title=First Fall Classic|url=https://archive.org/details/firstfallclassic00mike|url-access=registration|year=2009|publisher=Doubleday|location=New York|isbn=9780385526241}}</ref> The Giants also lost the [[1913 World Series]], a 101-win season cemented by Mathewson's final brilliant season on the mound: a league-leading 2.06 earned run average in over 300 innings pitched complemented by 0.6 bases on balls per nine innings pitched.

For the remainder of his career with the Giants, Mathewson began to struggle. Soon, the former champions fell into decline. In 1915, Mathewson's penultimate season in New York, the Giants were the worst team in the National League standings. Mathewson, who had expressed interest in serving as a manager, wound up with a three-year deal to manage the Cincinnati Reds effective July 21, 1916.<ref name="RRBio" />