CHRISTY MATHEWSON

Baseball's Greatest Pitcher"" receives tribute in a rhetorical biography that portrays an idol rather than a man. As a boy in Factoryville, Pennsylvania, ""Husk"" amazed older players with his throwing. After studying at Bucknell University he was soon launched into the career that saw him as a star player for the Giants, but which was tragically shortlived when tuberculosis forced retirement to Saranac. A premature attempt to work again- as manager of the Boston Braves- caused his death. Undoubtedly Mathewson was a great athlete with a great spirit and if the reader doesn't mind being told this over and over again, the book about him is adequate.