He was a gifted athlete as a child, excelling in nearly every sport he attempted, especially baseball and football, which he played in high school when the family moved to Ludlowville, New York.

[3] After graduating from high school in 1935, Christopher maintained his involvement in baseball, playing first in a semi-professional league in the mid-1930s before moving up to professional ball, playing third base for the Smith Falls Beavers of Ontario, Canada (an affiliate of the Class C Can-Am League).

Christopher returned home to New York, where he played semi-professional ball until a knee injury shortly thereafter ended his career.

[3]For the next 20 years, Christopher wrote novels in several genres including science fiction, mystery, adventure, and romance, but he was unable to get a single one published, even as his short stories continued to sell.

[3] In 1953, he finally sold his first book, Look for the Body, a 60,000-word detective novel, to Phoenix Press of New York City for $150 ($1,665 in 2022 dollars).

His best baseball books are considered to be Wild Pitch, Catcher with a Glass Arm, and The Kid Who Only Hit Homers.

He has written books centered on snowboarding, dirt bike racing, volleyball, golf and many other sports, in addition to a number of biographies of sportsmen and women.

[4] Christopher died September 20, 1997, in Charlotte, North Carolina[2] from surgical complications for a non-malignant brain tumor.

[2] LC now instructs libraries in a general Note:[2] The name Matt Christopher continues to appear on title pages of new works after his death.

verso [ title page verso ] and may be considered the creator of these posthumous works.For instance, there are seven LC online catalog records for Matt Christopher books published during 2002:[2] Stephanie True Peters of Beverly, Massachusetts is the series editor (2014)[11] and the writer of about fifteen Matt Christopher books since 2000.