Bobby Mathews

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Robert T. Mathews (November 21, 1851 – April 17, 1898) was a right-handed professional baseball pitcher for twenty years beginning in the late 1860s. He is one inventor of the spitball pitch, which was rediscovered or reintroduced to the major leagues after he died. He is listed at 5 feet 5 inches tall and 140 pounds, unusually small even in his time.

Born 1851 in Baltimore, Maryland, Mathews played as a teenager with the Maryland club of that city, and he made the team a dangerous one. For the 1871 season, he and some other Maryland players signed with the Fort Wayne Kekiongas. On May 4, 1871 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he pitched a shutout in the inaugural game of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NA), the first professional league.

Mathews umpired a few games in 1888 and signed with the regular staff of the Players League in 1890, returning to the AA in 1891.

For his 16 year career, he had 297 wins, 254 losses, 525 complete games, with a career earned run average of 2.89. He had 1366 strikeouts compared with 533 walks. He won 20 games 8 times, including 42 in 1874 with the New York Mutuals of the National Association. He is the 23rd winningest pitcher in baseball.

He died 1898 in Baltimore, only 46 years old. He is buried in New Cathedral Cemetery, Baltimore.

[edit] External links

• Baseball Reference

[edit] References

• Retrosheet. "Bobby Mathews". Retrieved 2006-09-07.
• Wright, Marshall (2000). The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-0779-4