Matty: An American Hero

When all-time pitching great Christy Mathewson died of tuberculosis in 1925 at the age of 45, it touched off a wave of national mourning that remains without precedent for an American athlete. The World Series was underway, and the game the day after Mathewson''s death took on the trappings of a state funeral: officials slowly lowered the flag to half-mast, each ballplayer wore a black armband, an...