And in this corner....

Dr. X posts this from Midway Stadium, home of the St. Paul Saints:

"Against Honus Wagner's Pirates you had the New York Baseball Giants, a team of contrasts. On the one hand, you had pitching ace Christy Mathewson, also known as "Big Six" or, and I am not making this up, "The Christian Gentleman" (he never pitched on Sunday). Born in Factoryville, PA, Mathewson was President of his class at Bucknell, one of the few college men in the game. Now 28, Mathewson was regarded as a great pitcher, having led the Giants to victory in the 1905 World Series with a pair of shutouts. He had been off-form since then, however, owing to a bout of diphtheria in early 1906, the effects of which lingered.

"Giants manager John McGraw knew from diphtheria. It came to town when he was a boy and killed his mother, along with four brothers and sisters. Details are unclear about what happened next. Some sources say his father became unhinged and beat him, causing him to run away from home. Whatever happened, John McGraw entered adulthood with a lot of neurotic motivation and a chip on his shoulder. This made him well-suited for the game of base ball, with its desperate energy, atmosphere of intimidation, and frequent outright violence.

"In 1891, he signed to play 3rd base for the Baltimore Orioles of the American Association (that was the year before they jumped to the National League). He apparently was a very good player: His working of the hit-and-run with Wee Willie Keeler was legendary, as was his re-definition of 'hit-and-run' - the perpetration of various acts of mayhem on baserunners when the ump wasn't looking. But he wasn't just a thug - he was a thug with skills. Here is a list of career leaders, in the history of baseball, in on-base percentage - minimum 3,000 plate appearances:

"Ted Williams - .482
"Babe Ruth - .474
"John McGraw - .467
"Sliding Billy Hamilton - .455
"Lou Gehrig - .447
"Barry Bonds - .444
"etc.

"McGraw joins the New York Giants as player-manager in 1902. By 1908 he has played his last game and manages from the sidelines.

"His management techniques would be familiar to Al Davis. 'The main idea,' he once said, 'is to win.' With the singular exception of Mathewson, his team is made up of bad men, thugs, drunks, and ne'er-do-wells. They are mean and violent and they play very smart baseball. The prototype is the aforementioned Turkey Mike Donlin, one of the best hitters in the League, but also a perennial malcontent and team-jumper. McGraw gets players like this to produce for him. The word around the League is that if you have a player with a 'lifestyle problem', you should trade him to McGraw.

"McGraw also was on the lookout for young players, and had an informal network of scouts across the country. A confident judge of talent, he'd push a promising youngster into the lineup - a policy he sometimes had occasion to regret.

"In a time when there were only one or two umpires on the field, and the crowd wasn't shy about roughing them up for a bad call, McGraw builds a reputation as the biggest umpire-baiter of them all. One umpire said 'he ate gunpowder every morning, and washed it down with warm blood.' He remains #2 in lifetime ejections, his record recently broken by the estimable Bobby Cox.

"McGraw was the personification of the game of his era. He was the ultimate old school base ball man, a guy who wanted to see you run like hell and get dirt on your uniform. If you were against him he'd try to trip you, have his pitcher bean you, threaten the umpires if they didn't make the call against you...someone had to lose, and it wasn't going to be him.

"Love of the game? That was for suckers:

" 'In playing or managing, the game of ball is only fun for me when I'm out in front and winning. I don't give a hill of beans for the rest of the game.'



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