Reading a book like Pitching in the Pinch will stir an earnest yearning in my heart. It is Christy Mathewsons ghostwritten account of his career in major league baseball. It is a classic work of baseball writing. Mathewson was a 373 game winner in his career and had a lot of great thoughts on the game. He shares insight into John McGraws management skill and he delves into the psychology of the game. You can learn a lot about Americas past-time before Babe Ruth revolutionized the game.This is a highly entertaining and educational book.

What an amazing read. It makes you realize that not much has changed since Mathewson once ruled the roost on the pitching mound. The things he say, the wisdom of experience he imparts sounds so fresh, so immediately relevant to the game as it is played today that it might as well have been written yesterday.

Particularly impressive is the idea that there are pitchers who are fabulous when there are no runners on base, but once the pinch is on (hence the title of the book) they become tentative shrinking violets. The pinch, Mathewson writes, is the true test of a pitcher's character. How right he is, in this true baseball classic. A must read for all who love the game.

If you want to have an insider's view of how the world of baseball was in the early part of the century, this is the book for you. Mathewson takes us there in all its glory. Well done

I bought this book many years ago. I'm surprised it's still in print -- It should have never been in print. It is a contrived historical novel with fictional characters of zero intrest. ...

Essential to understanding and enjoying "The Celebrant" is knowing just who Christy Mathewson is. The book is half the action on the field, the dugouts and the offices, half the business of the Kapinskis, a Jewish immigrant family who carry a high fanatical esteem of Mathewson. But the book is very much baseball, so understanding the "hero" status of Mathewson would be helpful, and the author assists with tiny statistical boxes laced throughout the book.

The book is also a zealous, near-stalkerish account of Mathewson, famous for his 327 wins (with the highest winning percentage of all righties), career 2.13 earned run average, as well as his blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Bucknell-educated pedigree. The tall Mathewson dominated the early 1900s by developing a "fadeaway" pitch that tailed into righthanders, more familiar as today's screwball.

The book follows the Kapinskis gradual absorption into the baseball world after the younger brother, a talented artist, designs a beautiful commemorative World Series ring in an era when such rings weren't commonplace. His business savvy and gambling-addicted brother pushes all the deals and the pair soon gain prominence not only within the jeweler's circle, but in baseball, particularly with their worshipped idol Mathewson, the rest of his teammates and hard-as-nails manager McGraw.

The book includes many historical aspects of baseball: the gambling scene that once heavily threatened to ruin the game; the pre-free agency relationship that had owners literally owning their players (who had little control over their careers), and the gradual integration of all sorts of fans into the game.

It's a good read, leaving you with the sort of feeling you get after watching a long baseball movie based on fact.

First of all, let me say that I very rarely read fiction-it's just not my thing. With that in mind, The Celebrant is one of the best books I've ever read. It gets its hooks in you early with a captivating yarn, and an interesting writing style.

What bothers me is the ending. Is it a lesson on the dangers of hero worship? Is it a coincidence that Jackie acts on the words of Mathewson after meeting him for only the second time? What if he hadn't gone to see him? I don't think he would have made the same decision. What did his action accomplish?

This is what really bothered me.
Eli had already been cut off from the family business-he wasn't going to take anyone else down with him. Tough love gone askew?
Was Jackie blindly following the words of Mathewson, or had Mathewson's mind created some twisted higher standard others should follow, unbeknownst to Jackie? This ending caught me offguard, especially after the lecture Arthur got about how valuable Eli was to the company in it's beginning, and he should be taken care of now. Am I not my brother's keeper? I guess not...

These questions aside, this is masterful writing. The World Series games come alive as never before. McGraw, Merkle, Snodgras, Hal Chase, and the fictional Kapinski family all intertwine in this splendid tale. What a movie this would make!

The first thing you should know about this book is it's based on the 1975 season, which means that none of the umpires or players mentioned are contemporary.

Beyond that, this is poorly done and unethically done at that. Late in the book, the author admits that he pretended to be sleeping in order to eavesdrop on the conversation between two umpires in a hotel room. He says he threw away drinks and pretended to be drunk so they'd talk openly in front of him.

If the ethics don't bother you, consider this: how accurate are the conversations he quotes, considering he had no tape recorder and reconstructed them after the fact? Could you relate word-for-word a conversation you had with a co-worker this morning?

Baseball umpires could be the subject for a great book. This isn't it.

For this genre, the book is mediocre. If anything, I would say that the writing style is wrong. It may be "creative writing" but it reads more like a novel than non-fiction. Now, non-fiction does not mean it has to be boring! Certainly, some of the stories are interesting, but it often became a chore to read. Not a bad book, but certainly not the best it could be.

Very few people know what the rigours and stresses of a pro sport official are as well as the personal setbacks and of course the professional flaws. This book has all of the above, excellently written and clearly shows what being a major sports league's messenger (since umpires just enforce the rules) is really like. Just as now, the dealings with overpaid, spoiled players, coaches and managers are well described. One of the best books I've ever read.