Starting in December and ending on Opening Day, Joe Posnanski will count down the 100 greatest baseball players by publishing an essay on a player every day for 100 days. In all, this project will contain roughly as many words as “Moby Dick.” Yes, we know it’s nutty. We hope you enjoy.



The Pennsylvania town called Factoryville doesn’t have a factory in it … and never really did. Yes, there had once been a cotton mill across the Tunkhannock Creek, but the place closed almost immediately after Factoryville began. And after that, Factoryville — like Iceland — lived on as a direct counter to its name, a quiet and peaceful valley of trees and lakes and creeks, all but untouched by the Industrial Revolution, an idyllic “A River Runs Through It” sort of place.



Factoryville was where Christy Mathewson grew up.



You intuitively know everything you need to know about Mathewson because you intuitively know what...