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Christy Mathewson (Christopher Mathewson)[math´usun, –yusun] Pronunciation Key, 1880–1925, American baseball player, b. Factoryville, Pa., grad. Bucknell Univ., 1902. A righthander, he joined the Cincinnati Red Legs in 1901 and was traded to the New York Giants. Under John J. McGraw, Mathewson won 373 games and struck out 2,499 batters before he retired from active play in 1918. In three consecutive seasons (1903–5) Mathewson won 30 games or more, and in 1905 he led the Giants in their World Series victory over the Philadelphia Athletics by pitching three shutouts in six days. He pitched two no-hit games and in 1908 recorded 37 victories; he was traded (1916) to the Cincinnati Red Legs and successfully managed the team until 1918, when he joined the army in World War I. He became a victim of poison gas in France. He returned to baseball in 1923 as president of the Boston Braves, but he died of tuberculosis shortly after. In 1936 he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
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