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Friday, July 30, 2010

Christy Mathewson on Project Gutenberg

Just in time for the non-waiver trade deadline, Project Gutenberg has released its (free, human-edited) edition of Christy Mathewson’s great Pitching in a Pinch:

Some pitchers depend largely on their motions to fool batters. “Motion pitchers” they might be called. Such an elaborate wind-up is developed that it is hard for a hitter to tell when and from where the ball is coming. “Slim” Sallee of the St. Louis Nationals hasn’t any curve to mention and he lacks speed, but he wins a lot of ball games on his motion.

“It’s a crime,” says McGraw, “to let a fellow like that beat you. Why, he has so little on the ball that it looks like one of those Salome dancers when it comes up to the plate, and actually makes me blush.”

But Sallee will take a long wind-up and shoot one off his shoe tops and another from his shoulder while he is facing second base. He has good control, has catalogued the weaknesses of the batters, and can work the corners. With this capital, he was winning ball games for the Cardinals in 1911 until he fell off the water wagon. He is different from Raymond in that respect. When he is on the vehicle, he is on it, and, when he is off, he is distinctly a pedestrian.

The book has been available through Google Books and the Internet Archive as a PDF or a slightly garbled EPUB, but bitter experience has shown that Gutenberg editions are usually much easier to read on phones and most ebook readers.

Fernigal McGunnigle Posted: July 30, 2010 at 04:56 PM | 50 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
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1. AndrewJ Posted: July 30, 2010 at 06:17 PM (#3603835)

In other, unrelated news, MLB wonders why African-American interest in the national pastime is so low:

Another great piece of luck is for a ball-player to rub a colored kid’s head. I’ve walked along the street with ball-players and seen them stop a young negro and take off his hat and run their hands through his kinky hair. Then I’ve seen the same ball-player go out and get two or three hits that afternoon and play the game of his life.

2. Hang down your head, Tom Foley Posted: July 30, 2010 at 06:36 PM (#3603872)

In other, unrelated news, MLB wonders why African-American interest in the national pastime is so low:

It's because the players no longer rub black kids' heads?

3. Guapo Posted: July 30, 2010 at 06:53 PM (#3603901)

Young negroes were the PEDs of the 1910s.

4. Ron Johnson Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:02 PM (#3603911)

It's a fascinating book, but I find it a mighty tough read. I read it in chunks -- a paragraph or two at most in any sitting.

5. Sheer Tim Foli

Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:02 PM (#3603914)

I heard that was the thinking behind the Phillie organization's acquisition of Gary Maddox.

6. RB in NYC (Now with New iPhone!) Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:07 PM (#3603923)

So Matty actually write this one, or is it ghosted?

EDIT: Whoever wrote it, it's pretty marvelous:

"That old low curve is his favorite now, and he reaches for it with the same cordiality as is displayed by an actor in reaching for his pay envelope"

7. Textbook Editor Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:09 PM (#3603925)

"Two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water; the other third is covered by Garry Maddox."

My favorite baseball quote of all-time.

Garry Maddox Baseball Card

We have quite boring baseball cards nowadays...

8. Lassus Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:11 PM (#3603928)

“It’s a crime,” says McGraw, “to let a fellow like that beat you. Why, he has so little on the ball that it looks like one of those Salome dancers when it comes up to the plate, and actually makes me blush.”

I'm not sure I've heard a riff this great from a manager or player in the last thirty years.

9. Sheer Tim Foli

Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:13 PM (#3603934)

"Two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water; the other third is covered by Garry Maddox."

My favorite baseball quote of all-time.

Mine too. He was awesome.

10. Sheer Tim Foli

Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:14 PM (#3603936)

So Matty actually write this one, or is it ghosted?

I would be very surprised. I don't think he wrote anything he is credited with writing.

11. Tulo's Fishy Mullet (mrams) Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:22 PM (#3603943)

I'm not sure I've heard a riff this great from a manager or player in the last thirty years.

The color and honesty used in conversation, not just sports dialogue, from that generation is probably my favorite part of reading.

12. Fernigal McGunnigle Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:24 PM (#3603947)

So Matty actually write this one, or is it ghosted?

I'm fairly certain that it was ghostwritten by the John N. Wheeler who wrote the introduction. I know nothing about Wheeler save that he was a Pulitzer employee and a New York journalist, and presumably he'd only write the intro if he wrote most of the rest of it as well. Still, it's a really great book.

EDIT: He's John Neville Wheeler, and in recent editions it's credited "Christy Mathewson, as told to..."

13. What did Billy Ripken have against Elroy Face? Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:38 PM (#3603968)

I'm fairly certain that it was ghostwritten by the John N. Wheeler who wrote the introduction.

No way - that could only be the prose of the inimitable T. Herman Zweibel.

14. Gonfalon Bubble Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:41 PM (#3603969)

The best baseball quote of all time is Babe Ruth's party ice-breaker, "Any girl who doesn't want to #### can leave now!" They still use it on the first Monday in October at the Supreme Court.

15. Lassus Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:47 PM (#3603979)

The color and honesty used in conversation, not just sports dialogue, from that generation is probably my favorite part of reading.

Grrr, I should have quoted better. The part I was really referring to was about Salome and blushing.

16. vortex of dissipation Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:52 PM (#3603992)

Bill James commented on this passage in one of his books, but it's still an absolutely great description of pitchers with drinking problems:

Like great artists in other fields of endeavor, many Big League pitchers are temperamental. “Bugs” Raymond, “Rube” Waddell, “Slim” Sallee, and “Wild Bill” Donovan are ready examples of the temperamental type. The first three are the sort of men of whom the manager is never sure. He does not know, when they come into the ball park, whether or not they are in condition to work. They always carry with them a delightful atmosphere of uncertainty.

17. Dan Evensen Posted: July 30, 2010 at 07:56 PM (#3604001)

I read a 1912 edition (I believe -- can't remember if it was the first edition or a later edition, but I am certain it was pre-1915) of Pitching in a Pinch while I was a student at BYU. The book was just sitting there on the normal shelves, not in any special collection library or anything. I still find that hard to believe.

It's a great book.

18. Greg Goosen at 30 Posted: July 30, 2010 at 09:31 PM (#3604126)

There was an addition published in the early 1970s that had Tom Seaver writing the forward (don't think Dick Young ghosted it for him). Got some publicity at the time (modern NY pitcher interested in old NY pitcher). Perhaps Dan Evensen came across that.

Now if Gutenberg can only add Johnny Evers "Touching Second". It's on Google Books but I haven't figured out how to download that to my ipod touch

19. Esoteric Posted: July 30, 2010 at 09:39 PM (#3604149)

Oh man...this book is a gem. Mathewson is discussing the weaknesses of various contemporary hitters, and the "groove pitch" he would use on each one to exploit that weakness and get them out. Then the subject turns to Honus Wagner:

Wagner loomed up at the bat in a pinch, and I could not remember what [Jack] Warner had said about his flaw. I walked out of the box to confer with the catcher.

“What’s his ‘groove,’ Jack?” I asked him.

“A base on balls,” replied Warner, without cracking a smile.

20. CFiJ Posted: July 30, 2010 at 10:18 PM (#3604213)

Mathewson on Ty Cobb:

I have never seen him play.

Jeez, that DiPerna meme really gets around.

21. vortex of dissipation Posted: July 30, 2010 at 10:31 PM (#3604233)

Mathewson on Ty Cobb:

I have never seen him play.

Really makes you realise how different things were in those days. No TV, spring training that had teams playing a schedule they composed themselves, often against minor-league teams, no interleague play, no All-Star Game. And Mathewson was playing in a city that had an AL team!

22. Esoteric Posted: July 30, 2010 at 11:27 PM (#3604286)

#20 actually made me choke a little on my drink.

23. AndrewJ Posted: July 31, 2010 at 12:46 AM (#3604363)

The best baseball quote of all time is Babe Ruth's party ice-breaker, "Any girl who doesn't want to #### can leave now!" They still use it on the first Monday in October at the Supreme Court

I always thought it was minor league manager Don Hoak's motivational speech to his Triple-A players, "Each one of you is this close (putting thumb and forefinger about a millimeter apart) from big league (colloquialism for female genitalia)" (h/t Ball Four)

24. bobm Posted: July 31, 2010 at 05:38 AM (#3604557)

"Each one of you is this close (putting thumb and forefinger about a millimeter apart) from big league (colloquialism for female genitalia)" (h/t Ball Four)

Little known fact: Jim Bouton invented "Big League Chew" gum.

25. Flynn Posted: July 31, 2010 at 05:54 AM (#3604562)

It's cool to think that almost a century later it's about as good an inside baseball book as has ever been written, and is still a great read today.

26. Fred Lynn Nolan Ryan Sweeney Agonistes Posted: July 31, 2010 at 06:00 AM (#3604565)

I like Matty's use of the word "groove" for "the place you want the ball to go for this hitter."

I also like this:

Some pitchers talk to batters a great deal, hoping to get their minds off the game in this way, and thus be able to sneak strikes over. But I find that talking to a batter disconcerts me almost as much as it does him, and I seldom do it. Repartee is not my line anyway.

I dunno, I kind of find the trash talk entertaining.

27. toratoratora Posted: July 31, 2010 at 12:13 PM (#3604613)

Well timed forum for me. I picked up a copy of Pitching in a Pinch for free at the book thing last week. It's next on my list of reading material.I'm looking forward to reading it.

28. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: July 31, 2010 at 01:02 PM (#3604619)

I've got the original edition of PIIP and read it years ago, and it's every bit as good as these excerpts suggest. Much of the language is so completely "foreign" to our eyes that it seems almost 'literary', not to mention the cultural attitudes about "mascots." (BTW it wasn't just "negroes" who were used as mascots back then; another favorite of ballplayers was crippled children.)

And if any of you make it through the clunky internet version and keep your high opinion of it (which you will), an even better book from that period is Johnny Evers' Touching Second (1908), which was ghosted by Hughie Fullerton. Click on this google books link and scroll to pp. 256-258 if you want to read about the great defensive sequence in the history of baseball, which took place in game 4 of the 1908 World Series. The sequence in question begins towards the bottom of p. 256. For a player's insights on "inside baseball" in the dead ball era, it's a book that's never been surpassed.

29. Dan Evensen Posted: July 31, 2010 at 01:40 PM (#3604633)

There was an addition published in the early 1970s that had Tom Seaver writing the forward (don't think Dick Young ghosted it for him). Got some publicity at the time (modern NY pitcher interested in old NY pitcher). Perhaps Dan Evensen came across that.

I can assure you that I didn't. The book was clearly from the 1910s, including the copyright year. I should have taken pictures.

I've always wanted to read Touching Second. EBay / Amazon aren't helping me out, though, so it looks like I'll have to stick with the Google Books version.

30. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: July 31, 2010 at 02:34 PM (#3604666)

I've always wanted to read Touching Second. EBay / Amazon aren't helping me out, though, so it looks like I'll have to stick with the Google Books version.

Here you go, Dan. Not a giveaway price, but it's a lot less than the original edition, and you don't need a machine to read it.

31. GregD Posted: July 31, 2010 at 02:43 PM (#3604672)

I read a 1912 edition (I believe -- can't remember if it was the first edition or a later edition, but I am certain it was pre-1915) of Pitching in a Pinch while I was a student at BYU. The book was just sitting there on the normal shelves, not in any special collection library or anything. I still find that hard to believe.

I too have a couple of times found 1910s versions of Pitching in a Pink on the shelves of libraries, and once got one sent through Interlibrary Loan, which they generally don't do for books that are considered extremely valuable. Bauman's lists an "extremely good" 1912 copy for $450, which is more than I spend for books but not enough to cause a good library to place it in special collections. Bauman's copy

32. Esoteric Posted: July 31, 2010 at 02:55 PM (#3604682)

Click on this google books link and scroll to pp. 256-258 if you want to read about the great defensive sequence in the history of baseball, which took place in game 4 of the 1908 World Series. The sequence in question begins towards the bottom of p. 256. For a player's insights on "inside baseball" in the dead ball era, it's a book that's never been surpassed.

Wow. Once again, Andy is master of his domain (ridiculously old books, that is...get your mind out of the gutter). I totally advise everyone to follow through and click on his link. Just feed "256" into the page search box at the top of the screen and you'll go right to the excerpt he's talking about. And it is, indeed, riveting stuff. REALLY riveting stuff.

EDIT: I know I'm a crusty old-fashioned conservative by disposition, if nothing else, just on the evidence of how much this era of the game excites me. Homers are exciting, but give me Tinker/Evers/Chance facing off against Cobb in a smallball showdown any day.

33. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: July 31, 2010 at 03:02 PM (#3604685)

Geez, and that $450 Bauman's copy is a reprint without a dust jacket. I used to get that G&D edition about once every two years in my store, and sold it for about $20 - $30 tops.

What's really expensive and justifiably so is the true first edition in a dust jacket. There aren't any listed on any website at this point, but here's what the original dust jacket looks like. I've never seen a real original copy, but for $22.00 this reprint makes a nice wrap for my jacketless Putnam 1st.

Also, you have to remember that Bauman's is way, way more expensive than most used book shops. They bought a set of books from me at $1800 and sold it for $6500. You can find the same edition of the Mathewson book now on abebooks for as little as $17.00, and a copy every bit as good as Bauman's for $75.00 from a store in New Jersey. It definitely pays to shop around.

34. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: July 31, 2010 at 03:06 PM (#3604686)

Wow. Once again, Andy is master of his domain (ridiculously old books, that is...get your mind out of the gutter). I totally advise everyone to follow through and click on his link. Just feed "256" into the page search box at the top of the screen and you'll go right to the excerpt he's talking about. And it is, indeed, riveting stuff. REALLY riveting stuff.

When I had my shop, and long before google books came along, I made a typewritten copy of those three pages from my own copy of the Evers book, and stapled them to the side of my case of baseball books. I honestly can't think of a more interesting three pages of any baseball book in my collection, which is a pretty damn big one.

35. AndrewJ Posted: July 31, 2010 at 03:28 PM (#3604697)

Pages 256-58 are riveting, but why were there four outs in that inning? Let's recap:

1) O'Leary forced out at third

2) Crawford picked off second base

3) Rossman strikes out, yet catcher Kling fires to Evers and

4) Cobb tagged at second

Was Evers' tagging out Cobb merely a giant symbolic "F--- you!" to The Georgia Peach or had everybody forgotten how many outs there were?

36. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: July 31, 2010 at 03:46 PM (#3604722)

I always wondered about that myself, but I figured it was just a case of Evers concentrating on executing the tag on Cobb and temporarily forgetting that Rossman already had two strikes on him.

And has there ever been a better half inning of defensive baseball, anywhere or at any time? I can't even begin to imagine what might have topped it, especially on a Baseball IQ scale.

37. CFiJ Posted: July 31, 2010 at 04:47 PM (#3604814)

Okay, how are you guys reading pp 256-258? I don't see a viewing option anywhere on the page in the link, and in the limited previews of the other editions pp 255-257 are not in the preview.

38. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: July 31, 2010 at 05:04 PM (#3604821)

Okay, how are you guys reading pp 256-258? I don't see a viewing option anywhere on the page in the link, and in the limited previews of the other editions pp 255-257 are not in the preview.

Here it is again. Just type in 256 in the blank space above Evers' head. It worked fine just a second ago and should work for you.

EDIT: Were you trying the google books link in #28, which was the correct one, or the link to the printed book in #30? That may have been your problem.

39. CFiJ Posted: August 01, 2010 at 04:52 PM (#3605509)

There is no blank space above Evers' head. Just the regular Google search bar, which, if I put 256 into it, doesn't take me anywhere. There's a "From Inside the Book" search bar underneath the book cover, but putting 256 into doesn't get me anywhere, either. Both links in #28 and #38 take me to a "Snippet view" with no option to view inside the book.

40. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: August 01, 2010 at 06:56 PM (#3605562)

That's weird, CFiJ, but I don't know what else to say. The page you describe is completely different than what I'm seeing. The link I gave should have a space to enter the page just to the right of "Contents", with two direction arrows to the right of it and a pair of magnifying glasses at the far left of the same row. And if you just scroll down the page, the pages all appear after a few seconds.

I just tried both the link I re-sent above, plus the original one I sent in #30, and they both worked easily. As it also seems to have worked for Esoteric and Andrew J. I guess it may be a problem with your browser; FWIW I use Mozilla Firefox.

41. Mefisto Posted: August 01, 2010 at 07:29 PM (#3605577)

I too have a couple of times found 1910s versions of Pitching in a Pink on the shelves of libraries

The biography of Molly Ringwald was published in 1910?

42. mex4173 Posted: August 01, 2010 at 07:35 PM (#3605581)

Using Firefox, and I'm having the same problem as CHiJ.

43. Swedish Chef Posted: August 01, 2010 at 07:43 PM (#3605585)

Could be that it is not available abroad, I can't browse it either.

44. PreservedFish Posted: August 01, 2010 at 07:53 PM (#3605591)

It's working for me, and thanks for the link. Totally awesome.

45. Accent Shallow Posted: August 01, 2010 at 08:57 PM (#3605624)

Depending on where you live, there might be a bookstore near you with an Espresso Book Machine. The EBM prints and binds books on demand in about twenty minutes, and it costs about ten bucks to get a physical copy of a public domain book. It's really, really cool.

I was not aware that such things existed. Awesome.

46. Lassus Posted: August 01, 2010 at 09:16 PM (#3605633)

Also, you have to remember that Bauman's is way, way more expensive than most used book shops.

A girl who dumped me for a 7-figure banker frequently makes purchases from those class-warfare-inspiring #############.

47. Der_K is feeling better now. Posted: August 01, 2010 at 11:28 PM (#3605710)

Woohoo! This thread reminded me to check again whether the EBM had made it to my neck of the woods yet; it has!

48. snapper (history's 42nd greatest monster) Posted: August 02, 2010 at 12:03 AM (#3605725)

Here it is again. Just type in 256 in the blank space above Evers' head. It worked fine just a second ago and should work for you.

First and second, down by two, and Cobb is bunting!!!!!

Are you kidding me!!!

49. Flynn Posted: August 02, 2010 at 12:17 AM (#3605730)

I can't see it either. I have an idea though. How about somebody just takes some screenshots together and patch it up for us unlucky folk?

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Christy Mathewson on Project Gutenberg

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