# Wid Matthews

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American baseball player

Baseball player

Wid Matthews Outfielder Born: (1896-10-20)October 20, 1896 Raleigh, Illinois, U.S. Died: October 5, 1965(1965-10-05) (aged 68) Hollywood, California, U.S. Batted: Left Threw: Left MLB debut April 16, 1923, for the Philadelphia Athletics Last MLB appearance June 7, 1925, for the Washington Senators MLB statistics Batting average .284 Home runs 1 Runs batted in 39 Stats at Baseball Reference Teams Philadelphia Athletics (1923) Washington Senators (1924–1925)

**Wid Curry Matthews** (October 20, 1896 – October 5, 1965) was an American [outfielder](/source/Outfielder), [scout](/source/Scout_(sports)) and front office executive in [Major League Baseball](/source/Major_League_Baseball). Matthews served as [general manager](/source/General_manager_(baseball)) of the [Chicago Cubs](/source/Chicago_Cubs) for seven full seasons and became one of the first front-office employees in the history of the [New York Mets](/source/New_York_Mets) in 1961, the year before they began play in the [National League](/source/National_League_(baseball)). A native of [Raleigh, Illinois](/source/Raleigh%2C_Illinois), Matthews stood 5 ft, 81⁄2 in (174 cm) tall and weighed 155 pounds (70 kg) in his playing days. He threw and batted left-handed.

## Playing career

After playing in the highest level of the [minor leagues](/source/Minor_league_baseball) — the [American Association](/source/American_Association_(20th_century)) and the [International](/source/International_League) and [Pacific Coast](/source/Pacific_Coast_League) leagues — Matthews made the major leagues for 2+1⁄2 seasons (1923–midseason 1925) for the [Philadelphia Athletics](/source/Philadelphia_Athletics) and [Washington Senators](/source/Washington_Senators_(1901%E2%80%9360)), [batting](/source/Batting_average_(baseball)) .284 with 188 [hits](/source/Hit_(baseball)), 21 [doubles](/source/Double_(baseball)), ten [triples](/source/Triple_(baseball)), one [home run](/source/Home_run) and 39 [runs batted in](/source/Runs_batted_in) in 192 games played. Sent by Washington to [Sacramento](/source/Sacramento_Senators_(baseball)) of the [Pacific Coast League](/source/Pacific_Coast_League) after 53 [games played](/source/Games_played) in [1924](/source/1924_Major_League_Baseball_season), Matthews did not appear in the [1924 World Series](/source/1924_World_Series), won by the Senators in seven games.

## Scout/front office career

Matthews' career as a scout and general manager began in [1936](/source/1936_in_baseball), when he joined the [St. Louis Cardinals](/source/St._Louis_Cardinals), the pioneers of the MLB [farm system](/source/Farm_system). [Seven years later](/source/1943_in_baseball), he moved with Redbird GM [Branch Rickey](/source/Branch_Rickey) to the [Brooklyn Dodgers](/source/Brooklyn_Dodgers), where he served as the Dodgers' director of Midwest scouting through the [1949](/source/1949_in_baseball) season. As Brooklyn's top scout in the Midwest, Matthews was one of multiple Dodger evaluators who followed [Jackie Robinson](/source/Jackie_Robinson) of the [Kansas City Monarchs](/source/Kansas_City_Monarchs) of the [Negro leagues](/source/Negro_leagues) in 1945. His glowing assessment of Robinson's ability to "protect the strike zone" was key to Rickey's decision to target Robinson as the first [African-American](/source/African-American) to break the [baseball color line](/source/Baseball_color_line) that had been in force since the 1880s.[1]

On February 14, 1950, Matthews became "director of player personnel" and *de facto* general manager of the Cubs. The Cubs had just begun a long skein of losing seasons, finishing in the NL's second division for 20 consecutive years (1947–66), and compiling an over-.500 record only in 1963. During his seven seasons (1950–56) as the top baseball official in the Chicago front office, Matthews was able to break the Cubs' color line, signing [Ernie Banks](/source/Ernie_Banks) as the team's first African-American player. However, plagued by a poor farm system and not aggressive enough in the signing of other black and [Latin](/source/Latin_America) talent, the Cubs could not escape the NL's second division during Matthews' reign.

After his dismissal by the Cubs, Matthews joined the front office of the [Milwaukee Braves](/source/Milwaukee_Braves_(1953%E2%80%9369)), then one of the National League's dominant teams. He held the identical title he did with Chicago, but in his new post he served as assistant GM to [John J. Quinn](/source/John_Quinn_(baseball_executive)), the Braves' incumbent general manager. In January of [1961](/source/1961_in_baseball), Matthews became a scout for the Mets, newly admitted to the National League as a 1962 [expansion team](/source/Expansion_team). He was promoted, along with [Johnny Murphy](/source/Johnny_Murphy), to the post of top aide to club president [George Weiss](/source/George_Weiss_(baseball)) in November of that year.

Matthews resigned as the Mets' director of player personnel during the [1964](/source/1964_in_baseball) season. His last job in baseball was as a scout for the [Los Angeles/California Angels](/source/Los_Angeles_Angels_of_Anaheim). He died in a [West Hollywood, California](/source/West_Hollywood%2C_California), hotel at the age of 68 during the Angels' end-of-year organizational meetings.

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Balos, Dick (February 12, 1990). ["Jackie Robinson: Simply a great athlete"](http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-jackie-robinson-athlete-19900212-story.html). *[The Los Angeles Times](/source/The_Los_Angeles_Times)*. Retrieved December 16, 2015.

- "Top Dodger Scout Switches to Cubs", *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*, Feb. 15, 1950.

- "General Manager of Mets Resigns: Front Office Realigned as Hurth Quits Post", *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*, Nov. 15, 1961.

## External links

- [The Dead Ball Era](http://thedeadballera.com/Obits/Mathews.Wid.Obit.html)

## Sources

- Career statistics from [Baseball Reference](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/matthwi02.shtml) · [Retrosheet](https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/Pmattw103.htm) · [Baseball Almanac](https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=matthwi02)

v t e Chicago Cubs general managers Weber Gallagher Matthews Holland Saltwell Kennedy Franks Green Frey Himes Lynch MacPhail Hendry Bush Epstein Hoyer Hawkins

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Wid Matthews](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wid_Matthews) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wid_Matthews?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.