Tickets are now on sale for what may be the final staging of Eddie Frierson’s one-man show about Christy Mathewson, the most famous of all Bucknell athletes and one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
“Matty, An Afternoon with Christy Mathewson,” will be staged at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 3 at the Campus Theatre, 413 Market St., Lewisburg. Tickets are available via www.lewisburgpa.com/shop or via the Lewisburg Downtown Partnership Facebook page. From 1 to 4 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, tickets will be available at the CommUnity Zone next to the theater. The LDP office at 570-523-1743 will also have tickets.
Mathewson, a Bucknell student before opting to play professional baseball, pitched for the New York Giants in the early years of the 20th century. Mathewson’s 373 major league wins earned him induction as a charter member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Mathewson enlisted in the Army during World War I and served in France. But he was gassed in a training exercise and developed tuberculosis. He died in 1925 and was buried Lewisburg Cemetery.
Frierson, who wrote and performed “Matty,” was inspired to write the two-act play after a chance reading of Mathewson’s Pitching in a Pinch. He grabbed a copy, one of several volumes written by Mathewson, as something to read during an airplane flight.
From that reading, Frierson got the idea that he could do a one-man show about the baseball great. The writing and polishing of the the show took some time, but made it a production worthy of praise by broadcasters Bob Costas and Keith Olbermann, sportswriter Ira Berkow and Clive Barnes, theater critic.
Frierson has noted that the Lewisburg show could be the final staging for “Matty” as the actor may not be as convincing as a young man. But the closure would be fitting as “Matty” has been so well-received in prior Lewisburg performances.
Proceeds from the performance will benefit the Union County 4th of July Parade Committee. Ruth Blankenship and Judy Blee, local pianists, will perform music of the early 20th Century period in the theatre lobby when the doors open 30 minutes before showtime.