Mike Mattimore

In the late 19th century, Mike Mattimore emerged from small-town Pennsylvania to play four seasons in the major leagues. On the 1888 Philadelphia Athletics, he showed promise as a pitcher and hitter with a 15-10 record and .268 batting average. But his performance declined, and he was out of baseball by 1892.

Michael Joseph Mattimore was born in Renovo, Pennsylvania, in 1859.1 Census records indicate that he had one older and six younger siblings. His parents were Irish immigrants: Michael Sr., a common laborer, and Teresa (Madden) Mattimore. The family resided in Renovo, a railroad hub, where young Michael apprenticed as a boilermaker in 1880. No other information about his early years has been uncovered.

In 1884 Mattimore appeared in newspaper reports as a pitcher for the Renovo Resolutes2 and a team representing Williamsport, Pennsylvania, a lumber boomtown 50 miles to the east. At Williamsport on June 17, 1884, the home team defeated a visiting Danville, Pennsylvania, squad, 9-3, and the Williamsport Gazette and Bulletin made special mention of Mattimore and his catcher:

“The home team had three new men, Mattimore, a pitcher, Cody, catcher and McCracken, short stop, on trial. The battery proved most efficient, Mattimore striking out eleven men, not including four whom Cody threw out at first after missing the third strike. The catcher showed up well and was the first man to introduce the new chest protector into Williamsport.”3

The same battery was featured in Williamsport’s 1-0 victory over Defiance of Philadelphia on the Fourth of July.4 The following spring, Mattimore began his professional career in New Jersey on the Eastern League’s Jersey City team.

Mattimore was a right-handed pitcher and left-handed batter, about 5-feet-8 and 160 pounds. In a 12-inning contest on June 8, 1885, he went the distance and allowed only two hits in Jersey City’s 2-1 loss to Wilmington, Delaware.5 Two weeks later, he allowed only one hit in nine innings in defeating Trenton, New Jersey, 6-5, with seven Jersey City errors contributing to Trenton’s tally.6 His team disbanded soon after, and he joined the Trenton squad.

On July 17, Trenton won, 10-1, as Mattimore fanned 14 Washington Nationals.7 He pitched well that month but lost four of five games to Richmond, Virginia, and Richmond’s ace, Harry Pyle,8 winner of 37 games that year. Mattimore’s combined season record for Jersey City and Trenton was 15-19, and his 223 strikeouts ranked third in the Eastern League behind Mike Tiernan (268) and Pyle (263).

Mattimore moved to the International League in 1886. He began the season on the Oswego, New York, team and pitched against the Syracuse Stars on Opening Day, May 8. An “enthusiastic throng” of about 3,000 came to Oswego’s Richardson Park, including “about 300 Syracuse excursionists” who traveled 40 miles by train, reported the Oswego Palladium. “Gray-haired men, who lived before base ball was thought of, were there, and their shouts were as loud and their interest as keen as the boys who perched themselves on the tops of telegraph poles and the neighboring houses.”9 It was a pitchers’ duel, Mattimore against Doug Crothers, and Syracuse prevailed, 2-0.

Six days later, Mattimore’s “curves were deceptive in the extreme” in Oswego’s 10-4 victory at Utica, New York.10 He endured to beat Binghamton, New York, 10-9, in 14 innings on May 27.11 And on June 11, he allowed only two hits in a 7-3 triumph over Toronto.12

On July 27, Mattimore allowed seven hits and lost to Syracuse, 9-2. Oswego committed 14 errors that day, a pitiful exhibition of “ground and lofty fumbling in circus style.”13 But the Oswego defense was not always inept. On August 25, Mattimore won a pitchers’ duel, 2-1, against Jack Horner of Rochester, New York. That day, Joe Ardner, the Oswego second baseman, handled 12 chances without error.14

On September 2, Mattimore was charged with six of his team’s seven errors in a 4-0 loss to Buffalo.15 He quarreled with Ardner, was fined and suspended,16 and was transferred to Utica. At the time, Oswego (23-65) sat in last place while Utica (53-31) stood in first place in the eight-team league.17

After posting a 12-26 record for Oswego, Mattimore went 4-1 in September for the pennant-winning Utica team. On September 23, he hurled a three-hit shutout to outduel Norm Baker of Rochester in a 1-0 Utica triumph. That day, “Mattimore did beautiful work in the box in every respect—speed, curves and strategy,” reported the Utica Press.18 Rochester manager Frank Bancroft was impressed and declared that Mattimore is “unquestionably the finest” pitcher in the International League.19

Word of Mattimore’s prowess reached John Ward, star shortstop of the National League’s New York Giants. In October, Ward traveled to Renovo, played shortstop behind Mattimore in a semipro game there, and signed him to a Giants contract for the 1887 season.20

With the Giants in the spring, Mattimore turned heads. It was said that the “brilliant young pitcher”21 threw “a wicked ball”—a “corkscrew ball”22—that “spins in a circle as it comes to the plate.”23 But he did not fare well in his major league debut at Washington on May 3, 1887: He pitched a complete game and allowed nine earned runs and 14 hits in the Giants’ 14-4 loss to the Washington Nationals.24 His second opportunity came on June 4 when he and the Giants were again defeated, 4-1, at Washington.25

Revenge came on June 11 at New York’s Polo Grounds. The Giants offense feasted on the pitching of Dupee Shaw in a 26-2 pasting of the Washington Nationals. Mattimore pitched a complete game and allowed four hits and no earned runs. It was his first major-league win, and he got his first two major-league hits.26

Three days later, Mattimore won again and got two more hits in the Giants’ 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. In the eighth inning with the Giants trailing 2-1, his double drove in the tying run, and he scored the go-ahead run (he “got to fourth base,” reported the Philadelphia Inquirer, referring to home plate).27 The New York Tribune noted that all of the Giants wore gloves in the field except Mattimore.28

At Indianapolis on July 2, Mattimore pitched his first major-league shutout,29 but he was sidelined afterward by a sore arm.30 He did not pitch again until September 27 when he and the Giants were defeated 10-5 by Old Hoss Radbourn and Boston.31

In seven games pitched for the Giants in 1887, Mattimore’s record was 3-3. The team had relied on a pair of Hall-of-Fame pitchers, Tim Keefe (35-19) and Mickey Welch (22-15). Seeing little opportunity on the Giants, Mattimore signed with the Philadelphia Athletics of the rival American Association for the 1888 season.32

In 221 innings pitched for the 1888 Athletics, Mattimore achieved a 15-10 record with four shutouts. His first shutout was a gem, a three-hitter at Baltimore on June 11.33 Four days later, he “pitched raggedly” in an 11-8 loss at Cleveland, and brilliant work by his catcher, Tom Gunning, “saved him from a dozen wild pitches.”34

It was a seesaw season. At Louisville on July 13, Mattimore gave up 19 hits in a 14-4 loss,35 but on July 30 he delivered a three-hit shutout against Kansas City.36 He was hit hard at Kansas City in a 9-4 loss on August 13,37 but he hurled a two-hit shutout of Louisville on August 29.38

The Athletics finished third in the eight-team American Association. Mattimore helped out also as a reserve outfielder and appeared in 15 games in right field. His .268 batting average exceeded the league average of .238 and far exceeded his .169 average in the minors, 1885-86. And he was praised by Charlie Comiskey, captain of the champion St. Louis Browns: “I like that man Mattimore. He is going to make the star pitcher of the Association. He is a first-class pitcher, a hard hitter, a fine baserunner and a good ballplayer. I wish we had him.”39

But the Athletics relegated Mattimore to a bench role in 1889. He was a backup outfielder and first baseman, and pitched in only five games, all but one in relief. No mention of a sore arm has been found in newspaper reports. In June, the Philadelphia Times suggested that he and six other Athletics were “frequently in a beastly state of intoxication.”40

Mattimore batted .233 in 23 games for the 1889 Athletics (the league average was .262) and was sold to Kansas City in early September.41 Then for 19 games he was Kansas City’s left fielder, but he batted only .160 and was released in October.42

There were three major leagues in 1890, including a newly formed Players League which joined the ranks of the National League and American Association. The Brooklyn Bridegrooms, champions of the 1889 American Association, moved to the National League for the 1890 season. Brooklyn’s entry in the Players League was a new club led by John Ward, and another new club, the Brooklyn Gladiators, joined the American Association. Mattimore signed with the Gladiators.

In his pitching debut with the Gladiators on May 18, 1890, Mattimore went the distance in an 11-inning, 3-2 loss to Toledo. The game was played at Ridgewood Park in Queens, New York. According to the Brooklyn Eagle: “A German band, whose ear piercing music was wafted across from a neighboring park, was enough to disconcert any pitcher. The music was as grating on the nerves of the spectators as on the players.”43

Mattimore lost his next two starts, 15-8 to Louisville on May 22 and 13-3 to Columbus, Ohio, on May 25. In the loss to Louisville, he was poorly supported by the Gladiators defense, which committed 11 errors.44 In losing to Columbus, he walked nine batters.45 The next day, May 26, he walked five while earning his first win for the Gladiators, an 8-4 triumph over Columbus.46

From May 30 to June 14, Mattimore won five of seven starts to improve his record to 6-5. By contrast, the combined record of the Gladiators’ other pitchers through June 14 was 7-21. But he lost his next eight starts, including a 16-2 debacle at Columbus on July 15 and an 11-4 loss at Louisville on July 21 in his final major league appearance.47 He was released in early August,48 and the cellar-dwelling Gladiators disbanded later that month. For the season, his record was 6-13 with a 4.54 ERA (the league ERA was 3.86) and his batting average was .132. In his major-league career, he was 26-27 with a 3.83 ERA and .204 batting average.

Mattimore traveled west, and in 1891 he played briefly for Seattle in the Pacific Northwestern League and for Walla Walla, Washington, in the Pacific Interstate League. Soon after, he moved to Butte, Montana, a copper boomtown, where he worked for decades as a boilermaker. In 1897 he played in left field and was captain of a Butte semipro team.49

On April 28, 1931, Mattimore, 72, died of heart failure and pneumonia at St. James Hospital in Butte.50 He was interred in that city’s Holy Cross Cemetery. The funeral service was attended by “scores” of his colleagues from the boilermaker and metal trades.51 No mention has been found of a wife or children; it seems he was a lifelong bachelor.

Acknowledgments

This story was reviewed by Bill Lamb and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo.

Photo credit: Mike Mattimore, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

Ancestry.com and Baseball-Reference.com, accessed October to November 2025.

Notes

1 Baseball-Reference.com, in November 2025, gave Mattimore’s birthdate and place as August 1858 in North Bend, Pennsylvania. But US census records from 1860 to 1880, and his tombstone and death certificate, provide evidence that he was born in 1859. Mattimore listed his birthplace as Renovo, Pennsylvania, in a 1919 employment application found at Ancestry.com. Renovo is three miles from North Bend.

2 “Base Ball Yesterday,” Williamsport (Pennsylvania) Gazette and Bulletin, September 30, 1884: 1.

3 “Bat and Ball Yesterday,” Williamsport Gazette and Bulletin, June 18, 1884: 4.

4 “A Great Victory,” Williamsport Gazette and Bulletin, July 5, 1884: 4.

5 “Wilmington Wins in 12 Innings,” Wilmington (Delaware) Every Evening, June 9, 1885: 1.

6 “Baseball Games,” New York Times, June 23, 1885: 2.

7 “General Sporting News,” Washington National Republican, July 17, 1885: 1.

8 Eastern League box scores in Sporting Life, July 15 to August 5, 1885. Mattimore beat Pyle on July 13, but lost to him on July 7, 10, 24, and 27.

9 “The International League,” Oswego (New York) Palladium, May 10, 1886: 2.

10 “Oswego vs. Utica,” Oswego Palladium, May 15, 1886: 4.

11 “A Fourteen Inning Game,” Oswego Palladium, May 28, 1886: 4.

12 “Fortune Favors the Brave,” Oswego Palladium, June 12, 1886: 4.

13 “The World of Sport,” Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator, July 28, 1886: 4.

14 “A Most Peculiar Defeat,” Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, August 26, 1886: 6.

15 “Another Won,” Buffalo Times, September 3, 1886: 5.

16 “Base Ball Notes,” Oswego Palladium, September 4, 1886: 4.

17 “The National Game,” Rome (New York) Sentinel, September 11, 1886: 2.

18 “Base Ball in Earnest,” Utica (New York) Press, September 24, 1886: 1.

19 “Prospects for Next Season,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 25, 1886: 6.

20 “New York’s New Pitcher,” Philadelphia Times, October 22, 1886: 3.

21 “News about Base Ball Men,” New York Sun, March 27, 1887: 10.

22 “In Base Ball Circles,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, April 18, 1887: 7.

23 “The National Game,” New York Sun, April 6, 1887: 3.

24 Sporting Life, May 11, 1887: 2. The box score shows 19 hits allowed by Mattimore, but in 1887 walks were counted as hits and he walked five batters in this game.

25 “Washington, 4; New York 1,” New York Sun, June 5, 1887: 11.

26 “A Great Game of Batting,” New York Times, June 12, 1887: 2.

27 “New York and Philadelphia,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 15, 1887: 3.

28 “The New-York Nine Gets a Game,” New York Tribune, June 15, 1887: 10.

29 “Costly Errors Caused It,” Indianapolis Journal, July 3, 1887: 4.

30 “Notes,” Hamilton Spectator, July 27, 1887: 4.

31 “Boston Wins,” Boston Globe, September 28, 1887: 4.

32 “The Athletic Team Completed,” Sporting Life, December 28, 1887: 5.

33 Sporting Life, June 20, 1888: 3.

34 “Association Games,” Philadelphia Times, June 16, 1888: 3.

35 Sporting Life, July 18, 1888: 3.

36 Sporting Life, August 8, 1888: 3.

37 “No Whitewash This Time,” Kansas City Times, August 14, 1888: 5.

38 “Two Victories in One Day,” Philadelphia Times, August 30, 1888: 4.

39 Quote from the Philadelphia Ledger reprinted in: “Base Ball Notes,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 3, 1888: 4, 5.

40 “Drunken Ballplayers,” Philadelphia Times, June 22, 1889: 3.

41 “Mattimore Signed,” Kansas City Journal, September 4, 1889: 2.

42 “Mattimore and LaDew Released,” Kansas City Times, October 2, 1889: 5.

43 “A Close Game,” Brooklyn Eagle, May 19, 1890: 2.

44 “Another Fine Game,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 23, 1890: 6.

45 “Crowds at Sunday Games,” New York Tribune, May 26, 1890: 3.

46 “The American Association,” New York Sun, May 27, 1890: 4.

47 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, July 16, 1890: 7; “An Easy Mark,” Louisville Courier-Journal, July 22, 1890: 5.

48 “Notes of the Ball Field,” Brooklyn Eagle, August 9, 1890: 1.

49 “The Butte Team,” Butte (Montana) Miner, May 3, 1897: 8; “It’s Anaconda Again,” Anaconda (Montana) Standard, May 17, 1897: 7.

50 State of Montana death certificate.

51 “Michael Mattimore,” obituary in Butte (Montana) Post, May 1, 1931: 2.