Mordecai Brown vs. Christy Mathewson

It must have been something to see.

Christy Mathewson vs. Mordecai Brown ... Mordecai Brown vs. Christy Mathewson. Like some classic fight card, it was the billing that always brought out the crowds. And in those days -- we're talking 1907, 1908 here -- the crowds would literally line the foul lines with a gruff propensity for giving opposing ballplayers a piece of their minds. And sometimes fists. These two Hall of Fame hurlers, Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown, delivered more Hall of Fame caliber pitchers duels to those raucous fans' delight than any other two moundsmen in major league history. And it can be argued that Brown and Mathewson comprised the greatest pitching rivalry the baseball world has ever known. Indeed, more often than not when Mordecai Brown and Christy Mathewson took the mound against one another, it had pennant-winning implications, and between them these two great pitchers saw eight World Series during baseball's so-called deadball era.

Mordecai Brown, nicknamed "Three Finger" for a boyhood farm accident that left his right hand disfigured (and the hurler in possession of a devastating natural curveball) played for the Chicago Cubs from 1904 to 1912, and again in 1916. Christy Mathewson, nicknamed "The Big Six" perhaps after the Big Six Fire Company, fastest in New York City, brought his renowned "fade-away" pitch to the New York Giants from 1900 to 1916. Just looking at the stats of these two Hall of Fame pitchers is daunting:

For Christy Mathewson it was 373 career wins, a 2.13 career ERA, 2,502 strikeouts, 13 seasons with 20 or more wins, including a major league record 37 in 1908. The Big Six won the National League Triple Crown -- leading the circuit in ERA, wins, and strikeouts -- in 1905 and 1908. Christy Mathewson was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1936.