Hitting Homers Off Christy Mathewson

February 6, 1980/in Articles.1980-BRJ9 /by admin

This article was written by Ray Gonzalez

This article was published in 1980 Baseball Research Journal

Christy Mathewson was probably the greatest pitcher in National League history, and this is reflected in the outstanding statistics he compiled from 1900 to 1916 in victories, percentage, strikeouts, and earned run average. One newly developed statistic for pitchers of his era which is not so outstanding is the number of home runs he allowed.

Mathewson gave up 91 home runs in 4783 innings. That is a very good ratio by modern standards, but it must be remembered that he pitched his entire career in the deadball era prior to 1920 when comparatively few fourbaggers were hit. A look at the records of some of Matty’s pitching contemporaries indicates that they were more stingy about giving up the four-base blow (Federal League records for these hurlers are not included).

	IP	HR
Chief Bender	2850	33
Mordecai Brown	2703	33
George Mullin	3484	35
Eddie Plank	4245	41
Ed Reulbach	2363	35
Ed Walsh	2964	24

The New York Giants’ righthander was, over-all, a better hurler than any of the above, but probably was touched for the long ball more frequently because he was a hard thrower with good control, giving some batters a chance to dig in. They certainly did zero in on him in 1914, blasting him for 16 roundtrippers. This was the most homers given up by any NL hurler in a season in the 1900-20 period. Ironically, he still had a good season, winning 25 games.

A review of the list of players hitting home runs off Mathewson indicates many who were not great hitters or home run threats. The chief slugger of that period, Frank Schulte of the Cubs, connected only twice off “Big Six.” On the other hand, Joe Tinker, a poor batter but a notorious nemesis of Mathewson, hit three homers off the famous fadeaway finger.

It was a third Chicago Cub player, Vic Saier, who hit the most home runs off Matty. He connected five times in the relatively brief period that they were opponents. The last time was on September 4, 1916, which was the only game Matty pitched for Cincinnati and the last of his career. There were special arrangements made so that Mathewson could face his old rival, Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown of the Cubs. It also was the last game for Brown, who lost 10-8 in spite of Saier’s three-run homer.

Johnny Kling and Owen Wilson were next with four roundtrippers off Mathewson. Honus Wagner, who probably faced Matty more than any other player (because of their closely synchronized careers), reached him for only three home runs in 17 years. Matty gave up only one grand slam and this was to journeyman infielder Frank Bonner ot the Braves, who drove the ball into the rightfield stands at the Polo Grounds on April 27, 1903. Fred Tenney also homered in that game, but Matty still struggled through to a 10-7 victory.

There were two opposing hurlers who connected off Mathewson. Willie Sudhoff of the Cardinals on June 24, 1901, and George Tyler of the Braves on May 4, 1916. As a batter, Matty hit seven homers in his career.

Mathewson was the victim of lefthanded batters 51 times and righties 40 times. In addition to the 54 homers hit off him in New York, he gave up 8 in Chicago, 7 in Philadelphia and St. Louis, 5 in Pittsburgh, 4 in Cincinnati, and 3 each in Brooklyn and Boston.

Here is a rundown of the 91 homers hit off Mathewson in his major league career.

Date of Game	Place	Batter and Club	Inn	Comment
July 25 1900	N.Y.	Fred Clarke, Pitt	3	CM in relief
June 24 1901	N.Y.	Willie Sudhoff, StL	5	Opposing hurler
June 26 1901	N.Y.	Dick Harley, Cin	5
Oct. 5 1901 (2)	Bkn	Joe Kelley, Bkn	1
July 15 1902	Cin	John Dobbs, Cin	1	Lead off hr
		Dummy Hoy, Cin	2	Last Hoy hr
Sep. 19 1902	N.Y.	Jim Sheckard, Bkn	5
Apr. 27 1903	N.Y.	Frank Bonner, Bos	4	Grand Slam
		Fred Tenney, Bos	8
July 28 1903 (1)	N.Y.	Ed Greminger, Bos	6
Aug. 17 1903 (1)	N.Y.	Cy Seymour, Cin	3
June 2 1904	N.Y.	Cy Seymour, Cin	4
June 13 1904	N.Y.	Frank Chance, Chi	8	Beat CM 3-2
July 21 1904	Chi	Frank Chance, Chi	7
Aug. 17 1904	N.Y.	Moose McCormick, Pitt	9
Sep. 161904(1)	N.Y.	Emil Batch, Bkn	7	Ruined shutout
Sep.21 1904 (1)	N.Y.	Heinie Peitz, Cin	4
Sep.24 1904	N.Y.	Ginger Beaumont, Pitt	6
June 17 1905	StL	Dave Brain, StL	6
July 18 1905	N.Y.	George Gibson, Pitt	3
Aug.21 1905	N.Y.	Dave Brain, Pitt	6
Sep. 12 1905 (1)	N.Y.	Harry Lumley, Bkn	8
July 17 1906	Chi	Joe Tinker, Chi	6
Sep. 17 1906	N.Y.	Sherry Magee, Phil	4
Oct. 4 1906	N.Y.	John Titus, Phil	3
May 23 1907	N.Y.	Jim Sheckard, Chi	5	Two men on
June 19 1907	Cin	Miller Huggins, Cin	1	Leadoff hr
July 17 1907	N.Y.	Ed Abbatichio, Pitt	9
July 29 1907	StL	Ed Konetchy, StL	11
Aug. 12 1907	Pitt	Tommy Leach, Pitt	3	Bounce hr
Aug. 17 1907	N.Y.	Johnny Kling, Chi	12
May 25 1908	Chi	Frank Schulte, Chi	1
June 11 1908	N.Y.	Honus Wagner, Pitt	4
July 17 1908	Chi	Joe Tinker, Chi	5	Beat CM 1-0
Sep. 23 1908	N.Y.	Joe Tinker, Chi	5	Merkle miscue
Sep. 26 1908 (1)	N.Y.	Harry Bayless, Cin	8	His only hr
May 31 1909 (2)	N.Y.	John Titus, Phil	4
June 23 1909 (2)	N.Y.	Beals Becker, Bos	1
June 15 1910	N.Y.	Ham Hyatt, Pitt	7	His first hr
Aug. 2 1910	N.Y.	Frank Schulte, Chi	2
Aug.11 1910 (1)	N.Y.	Tom Downey, Cin	2
Sep. 20 1910 (2)	N.Y.	Arnold Hauser, StL	5
Sep.24 1910	N.Y.	Johnny Kling, Chi	9
June 9 1911	Pitt	Fred Clarke, Pitt	7
July 3 1911	Phil	Jim Walsh, Phil	4
July 15 1911	N.Y.	Dick Hoblitzell, Cin	6
Aug. 19 1911 (2)	N.Y.	Mike Mitchell, Cin	4
Sep. 1 1911(1)	Phil	Sherry Magee, Phil	4
Apr. 15 1912	Bos	Johnny Kling, Bos	7
May 4 1912	N.Y.	Tom Downey, Phil	8	Two men on
June 13 1912	N.Y.	Jimmy Archer, Chi	7
June 22 1912 (1)	Bos	Johnny Kling, Bos	8
Sep. 12 1912 (1)	N.Y.	Rube Ellis, StL	1
Sep. 16 1912	N.Y.	Jimmy Archer, Chi	7	Beat CM 4-3
May 3 1913	Phil	Cliff Cravath, Phil	8	Pinch hitter
May 16 1913	N.Y.	Ham Hyatt, Pitt	8
June 14 1913	Pitt	Jim Viox, Pitt	1
		Owen Wilson, Pitt	9
July 15 1913	N.Y.	Josh Devore, Cin	6
Aug. 16 1913	N.Y.	Honus Wagner, Pitt	1	Two men on
Aug. 21 1913	N.Y.	Johnny Evers, Chi	5
Aug. 30 1913	Phil	Bobby Byrne, Phil	7
Apr. 18 1914	Bkn	Zach Wheat, Bkn	7	Two men on
May 4 1914	N.Y.	Jake Daubert, Bkn	4
May 23 1914	StL	Ivey Wingo, StL	2
June 1 1914	Phil	Fred Luderus, Phil	2
June 6 1914	N.Y.	Owen Wilson, StL	2
		Ivey Wingo, StL	2
June 11 1914	N.Y.	Vic Saier, Chi	1
June 26 1914 (1)	Bos	Joe Connolly, Bos	8
July 11 1914	StL	Owen Wilson, StL	2
		Cozy Dolan, StL	7
		Walton Cruise, StL	9	Pinch hitter
July 14 1914	Chi	Vic Saier, Chi	8	Two men on
July 25 1914	N.Y.	Ed Konetchy, Pitt	7
Aug. 6 1914	N.Y.	Vic Saier, Clii	8
Aug. 29 1914 (2)	Chi	Vic Saier, Chi	4
Sep. 26 1914 (2)	N.Y.	Honus Wagner, Pitt	4
Apr. 17 1915	N.Y.	Cliff Cravath, Phil	1
May 1 1915	Phil	Beals Becker, Phil	1
May 12 1915	N.Y.	Heinie Groh, Cin	3	Two men on
June 11 1915	StL	Owen Wilson, StL	9
June 28 1915 (1)	N.Y.	Sherry Magee, Bos	4
July 7 1915	Phil	Bert Niehoff, Phil	6	Two men on
July 23 1915 (1)	N.Y.	Doc Johnston, Pitt	3
July 31 1915(1)	Chi	Cy Williams, Chi	4	Two men on
Sep. 14 1915	Cin	Ivey Wingo, Cin	5
May 4 1916	N.Y.	George Tyler, Bos	6	Opposing hurler
May 9 1916	Pitt	Walter Schmidt, Pitt	9
June 26 1916(1)	Bkn	George Cutshaw, Bkn	5	Two men on
Sep.4 1916 (2)	Chi	Vic Saier, Chi.	9	CM with Cincy

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