NNO Christy Mathewson

Christopher "Christy" Mathewson (1880–1925) appears here in the unnamed E101 Anonymous Set of 50, one of the most coveted of the early caramel issues precisely because the cards bear no player identification on the front. Mathewson was the New York Giants' right-handed ace from his 1900 debut through 1916, posting 373 career wins and pitching three complete-game shutouts in the 1905 World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics. He batted right, threw right, and drew his fame as much from his collegiate pedigree at Bucknell and his clean-living public image as from his fadeaway pitch — the deadball term for what would later be called a screwball. The E101 set was issued circa 1910 and shares its image base with several other anonymous and branded contemporaries, making attribution a collector's exercise. Mathewson's military service in World War I left him with lung damage from accidental gas exposure during training; he died of tuberculosis on October 7, 1925 in Saranac Lake, New York. He was elected in the inaugural Hall of Fame class of 1936 alongside Cobb, Wagner, Ruth, and Walter Johnson.