Luke Epplin on Christy Mathewson and baseball’s gradual shift from a degenerate to a respectable, even wholesome, game: http://nyr.kr/16AWfSN
“In a deliberate efforts to position baseball as the national game at the turn of the twentieth century, the major leagues eagerly upheld Mathewson as the sport’s consummate player and citizen.”
Photograph by Matt Slocum/AP.
