Review of "This Never Happened"

The timing for reading this book was very good as it was a fictional story based on the accounts of a previously reviewed book here on the Gas and Flame men in World War I.  While this is fiction and does not refute any of the information from the non-fiction book, but the story does make one wonder.  Here is my review of "This Never Happened."

Title/Author:

“This Never Happened: The Mystery Behind the Death of Christy Mathewson” by J. D. Manheim

Rating: 

5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:  It is well known that one of the original members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, pitcher Christy Mathewson, died of tuberculosis that was a result of exposure to poisonous gases during World War I.  This novel by J.D. Manehim, a fictional work based on this unfortunate incident, raises the question of whether the exposure was during the actual fighting in France soon before the war ended or whether this was caused by an incident while in training.

This training was in a special division called the Gas and Flame Men.  This division had many famous baseball personalities.  In addition to Mathewson, the Gas and Flame Men included Ty Cobb, Branch Rickey and Frank Chance just to name a few.  The story raises the question of why were these men chose for this duty, especially given the dangerous nature of working with poisonous gases. 

However, the story of the division is only part of the novel.  A pair of men stumble across documents that a relative of one of them left about these men.  The documents were written by a fictional baseball writer, J.T. Willet who was one of the early baseball writers and one whose work for the Sporting News was so good that was part of the reason that the Sporting News was called the “Bible of Baseball.”  Willet found out what “really” happened through interviews with Mathewson’s widow, Cobb and other very important people who knew was supposedly really happened.  Willet’s story, the story of the documents and what became of them and the war stories of the baseball people all tie together well and the ending does make one wonder what really happened.

The book does take awhile to get going and most of the characters are not developed in great detail, but those minor issues are overcome by a riveting story that any reader interested in baseball or World War I will truly enjoy.

I was provided a review copy and the opinions expressed are strictly my own.

Link: Amazon.com: This Never Happened: The Mystery Behind the Death of Christy Mathewson (The Deadball Files): 9798888190821: Manheim, J.B.: Books