Bobby Mathews

Robert T. Mathews (November 21, 1851 – April 17, 1898) was an American right-handed professional baseball pitcher who played in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, the National League of Major League Baseball and the American Association for twenty years beginning in the late 1860s. He is credited as being one of the inventors of the spitball pitch, in each of three major leagues, For the 1871 season, he and some other Maryland players signed with the Fort Wayne Kekiongas. On May 4, 1871, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he pitched a shutout in the inaugural game of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NA), the first professional league. and signed with the regular staff of the Players' League in 1890, returning to the AA in 1891.

Legacy Over his 16-year career, he had 297 wins, 248 losses, 525 complete games, with a career earned run average of 2.86. He had 1,528 strikeouts compared with 532 walks. He won 20 games 8 times, including a career-high 42 in 1874 with the New York Mutuals of the National Association, and is the only player to win 50 games or to pitch 100 games Although he was known primarily as a pitcher (doing so for 578 games), he also played games in other positions from time to time, playing 80 games in the outfield, nine as a third baseman and two as a shortstop.

Death Mathews died in 1898 in Baltimore, at the age of 46, of paresis caused by syphilis, and is interred at New Cathedral Cemetery, also in Baltimore.