Christy Mathewson at the Cathedral of St. John the Devine

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Speaking of Roger Bresnahan, I'm currently reading this book:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0871138859.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Yesterday I read a reference to a stained glass window at Manhattan's Cathedral of St. John the Devine (the one that's been under construction for about a hundred years) that features Christy Mathewson. The window is one of four honoring contemporary athletes.

I had never heard of such a window. Has anyone else? Anybody seen it? If I was living in New York I'd probably go there this weekend to try to find the window.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Christy Mathewson hasn't been forgotten in his home town.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think I've seen it. It's been a while. I used to be a semi-regular visitor.

Check out closely the statue in the playground outside. It's almost indescribeable.

One of the craziest parties I ever attended was at the St. John deanery, given by the dean's daughter. Dancing our asses off, and then I looked down and got a sense that the rug we were cutting was probably hundreds of years old. Being around old money freaks me out. I started moving lamps away from the edges of tables and removing them from any precarious endtables.

I was such a failure as a punk.

[seawolf17]

Cathedral "Sports Bay" home page.

]The Sports Bay The Sports Bay is dedicated to St. Hubert (656-728) who inherited the legend of the second-century martyr St. Eustache: While hunting, he encountered a white stag whose antlers formed a gleaming crucifix. This ended his hunting career and converted him to the Christian faith, in which he rose to the position of bishop at Liege. Ironically, Hubert has become the patron saint of hunters while also one of the saints of animal protection. There are over two dozen sports depicted in the stained glass, including: Bowling Auto Racing Figure Skating Ice Hockey Basketball Fishing Golf

No photos other than these:

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Is this the picture you mean, Edgy?

Among other things, it looks like it's a pretty tiny statue.

[Guest Edgy DC]

No, I'm talking about this huge thing of (I can't do it justice and neither can a picture) an angel and a devil in mortal combat. I think the angel has run the devil through with a lance, and cut off his head. The battle is occurring on the back of some giant turtle, but more like Gamera than any conventional turtle I've ever seen. The diabolical head hangs off the side of the turtle's shell, but still remains somehow attached to the devil's torso by streaming ligaments and tendons and other gory stuff.

Pouring off the devil's back are all the animal's of Noah's ark --- mammals and birds, fishies and insects, tumbling and twisting as if they have no idea what has upset the order of nature so, or maybe their just exploding into being, incarnated and engendered from the energy thrown off in epochal battle itself.

[Theoldmole]

Christy Mathewson has always been one of my heroes. A great description of him in Mordecai Three Finger Brown's account of the Giants-Cubs playoff game in 1903 -- still one of the best pieces of baseball writing I have ever read.