Mike Matheny, Gold Glove Catcher

Historical Essay

by Matt Sieger

Mike Matheny

Photo courtesy SF Gate

Mike Matheny caught in the major leagues for 13 seasons, earning four Gold Gloves. He owns the catching record of 1,565 consecutive fielding chances without an error (does not include passed balls). With the Giants in 2005, he won his fourth Gold Glove and set a Giants single-season team record for catcher's fielding percentage at .999. He went on to manage the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals. This article is based on my interview with him in 2005 when he was a San Francisco Giant.

The dangerous Ryan Klesko was at the plate for the San Diego Padres in the top of the eighth inning with men on first and second, two outs, and the Padres leading the San Francisco Giants 5-3. A hit by Klesko could break the game wide open. The count went to 3-1, and then Klesko fouled off a pitch. Giants’ catcher Mike Matheny took the opportunity to visit relief pitcher Scott Eyre on the mound. When Matheny went back behind the plate, he never gave a signal for the next pitch. Eyre busted a 3-2 curveball, Klesko swung and missed, and the Padres threat was over.

Matheny had gone to the mound to tell Eyre to throw a curveball on the next pitch. He did not want to give the runner on second base the chance to steal the signal and relay it to Klesko.

"My true joy comes from working behind the plate, working with the pitcher," Matheny says. He calls the pitcher and catcher's duel with the batter "the game within the game."

The catcher is not as well known for his offense. But he is a clutch hitter and a tough out. In a game against the Milwaukee Brewers earlier this year, with the Giants trailing in the ninth and in desperate need of a base runner, Matheny fouled off half a dozen consecutive pitches before being hit by a pitch to get on base. In a game at Pittsburgh a week later, he hit a solo home run to beat the Pirates 3-2.

"I want to get the big hits," Matheny says. “I want to contribute in the small ways -- get the guy over, get the bunt down, get that big RBI."

Matheny spent the last five years with the St. Louis Cardinals, where he took a trip to the 2004 World Series. The Cards fell to the Red Sox in four straight games.

“It was disappointing that we didn't play the kind of baseball that we knew we could play," Matheny says of the World Series. But he was glad to make it to the Fall Classic. "I know a lot of people that have had much better careers than I've had and have never had that opportunity, so it's something I feel very grateful for."

Matheny left a legacy as a leader in St. Louis. He quickly gained the same reputation in 2005 with his new team, the Giants, In spring training pitchers were regularly stopping by his locker to talk baseball.

"He called a couple of 3-2 curveballs that I hadn't thrown in a while," Scott Eyre told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I was thinking, 'Are you serious? Okay, here goes.' You throw with confidence because he puts his finger down and pulls it away before you have a chance to say no."

The only person who does not see Matheny as a leader is Matheny.

"I don't necessarily claim to be a leader," he says. "I think a lot of times the people that do are the people who aren't. I just see myself as a servant, as a helper to these guys, seeing how I can give them the best chance to be successful."

His humble attitude stems from his Christian faith, which he says he puts “in the center of everything." He grew up in a Christian home, but learned that he had to enter into his own relationship with God.

"A lot of times you grow up in a Christian home, the whole process becomes a religion instead of a personal faith. It did for me, even at an early age. I realized that I was missing something, something wasn't quite right. I explain to kids that just because you're born in a garage, it doesn't make you a car. The same thing goes for your faith.

"I got challenged one night in a revival in a church in Columbus, Ohio. The pastor was telling each of us, regardless of our position in the church, where do we stand with Jesus. Who is He to us individually? And I realized that it was just a name and a ritual, going to church, standing up, singing the songs.

“I was eight years old, but old enough to know that God was talking right to me. I went home, asked a bunch of questions, and I remember my parents leading me to Christ, kneeling in front of our couch."

He was the team captain for both the baseball and football teams at Reynoldsburg High in Ohio. But his faith lay dormant. Matheny says he was a "closet Christian" during that time.

"There was a period in high school and college when I went on under the radar," he says. "It wasn't until minor league baseball that I was challenged to really step out and be bold in my faith." He came to see baseball as a mission field, where he could be a witness "not necessarily to the masses, but more importantly to the guys in the clubhouse." Matheny does not preach at his teammates, but says he tries to "keep it real" by building friendships so that they can "find out who Christ is and that He can change lives, and there is a better way out there than what this world offers."

Matheny's former manager at St. Louis, Tony La Russa, is certain that Matheny would make a great manager. Matheny is not sure what he wants to do after his playing career ends, but you can be sure that whatever he does, he will follow the Scripture that is inscribed on the stand that holds a baseball in his locker: "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might" (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

Matt Sieger, now retired, is a former sports reporter and columnist for The Vacaville Reporter. He is the author of The God Squad: The Born-Again San Francisco Giants of 1978.