Quote:
Originally Posted by timn1
After hearing great things about it for years, I've finally gotten around to reading Eric Rolfe Greenberg's novel The Celebrant (which WP Kinsella, author of [Shoeless Joe]/Field of Dreams, calls the best BB novel ever written). I think WPK may be right, it is tremendous. The characters are really well drawn, and the baseball action done well. Highest recommendation!
Mathewson is central to the book, and one moment in which a character calls him "Matson" got me wondering whether his name might have been pronounced "Matheson" at the time.
This infoplease site gives both pronunciations:
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0832207.html
I also found this thread from 2011:
http://www.net54baseball.com/archive...?t-137301.html
"Matheson" makes sense to me. Should he join the list of recently revised (or at least proposed) names? "Nap Lajoway," "Johnny Ee-vers," "KyeKye Cuyler," "Earle Coombs," "Dan Broothers"... am I forgetting anyone? |
In the book, as I recall, the character who pronounces it Matson -- I think it was the narrator's uncle who has a thick accent --knows nothing about baseball and the mispronunciation is a humorous way to convey that.