Rube Waddell
George Edward "Rube" Waddell, born on October 13, 1876, in Bradford, Pennsylvania, was a prominent American baseball pitcher known for his exceptional talent and colorful personality. He began his career in the late 1890s, initially playing for minor-league teams before making his way to the National League with the Louisville club. In 1902, he joined the Philadelphia Athletics of the newly formed American League, where he showcased his skills as a dominant strikeout pitcher, winning twenty-four games in his first season with the team. Waddell's peak year came in 1905 when he led the league with twenty-six victories and helped the Athletics secure the AL pennant, although his World Series appearance was marred by controversy.
Despite his on-field success, Waddell's life was marked by personal challenges, including struggles with alcohol and multiple marriages, which often overshadowed his athletic achievements. He was known for his playful antics on the field, endearing him to fans, especially children. Waddell's career faced setbacks after being traded to the St. Louis Browns, yet he left a lasting impression with a record-setting performance against his former team. Tragically, his life was cut short at the age of thirty-seven due to complications from a lung disease contracted while helping in a flood relief effort. Rube Waddell remains a fascinating figure in baseball history, symbolizing a bygone era of the sport defined by passion and personality.
Rube Waddell
Baseball Player
- Born: October 13, 1876
- Birthplace: Bradford, Pennsylvania
- Died: April 1, 1914
- Place of death: San Antonio, Texas
Sport: Baseball
Early Life
George Edward “Rube” Waddell was born October 13, 1876, in the Pennsylvania town of Bradford. He grew up in several industrial and mining towns of Western Pennsylvania. As a teenager, Eddie, as he preferred to be called, played on various town teams, including Butler, Oil City, and Homestead. He attended Volant College in Pennsylvania long enough to star for the baseball team. Scouts for the National League (NL) team in Louisville signed him to a contract in 1897. The big left-hander was about to be propelled from obscure small-town baseball into the big leagues.
The Road to Excellence
Eddie came to professional baseball at a time when there was only one major league, the National League. Louisville was one of the weaker franchises in a financial sense.
Eddie pitched in only two games his first season, 1897, before he was sold to a minor-league team in Detroit. In 1898 and 1899, he bounced around several minor-league teams before returning to Louisville for part of the 1899 season.
When the Louisville club folded before the 1900 season, Eddie was shipped off to play for Pittsburgh. He did not distinguish himself until the 1902 season, when he jumped to the new, rival American League (AL) and the Philadelphia Athletics (A’s), owned and managed by Connie Mack.
Mack was a practitioner of the type of baseball that relied on good pitching and good defense. Mack’s teams won games without scoring many runs, often by preventing opponents from scoring any runs. Mack also looked for pitchers who had the stamina to hurl complete games. Eddie was a big man with a big, strong left arm. He could pitch all season long without fatigue or injury.
The Emerging Champion
Eddie was nicknamed “Rube” to signify his country origins. He immediately put his talent to work for the A’s, winning twenty-four games in 1902. He made his reputation as a strikeout pitcher. In 1903, he again surpassed twenty wins, and also struck out 302 batters. Rube’s peak year for victories was 1905, when he won twenty-six games and led the Athletics to the AL pennant.
Baseball fans across the country eagerly awaited the World Series between Mack’s A’s and the NL champion New York Giants. Newspapers of the time looked forward to the first game, when it was expected that New York’s star Christy Mathewson, would take the mound against Rube. Instead, Rube took himself out of the Philadelphia lineup and did not appear in the series. He claimed that he had hurt himself tripping over his suitcase. Unsubstantiated rumors circulated that he had been paid by gamblers not to appear.
Until surpassed by Washington’s Walter Johnson, Rube was the premier strikeout pitcher of his day. He had the finest curveball in the American League, and his fastball had such movement that he made hitters look foolish as they flailed away at the ball.
In exhibition games after the regular season, he often played a trick in the ninth inning that delighted the crowd. He beckoned to his three outfielders to come to the dugout. He then proceeded to strike out the other side to prove that he did not need an outfield.
Continuing the Story
Rube has sometimes been described as an antihero. He often made the newspapers for unbecoming behavior off the field. Managers and teammates recognized that he had a problem with alcohol. Rube also made headlines with numerous marriages and divorces and with a failure to pay child support.
Children may not have looked to Rube as a role model of adult behavior, but they responded positively to his love for them and for baseball. Rube enjoyed simple pleasures such as riding fire engines, fishing, or playing marbles with neighborhood children.
Mack traded Rube to the St. Louis Browns after the 1907 season and publicly called the lefty an ineffective pitcher. Rube got his revenge when Mack brought the A’s to St. Louis. Mack watched sixteen Philadelphia batters strike out against Rube, a record that lasted for more than half a century.
Rube played in the minor leagues after his release from St. Louis. While playing in Kentucky in 1914, he volunteered to help combat a flood by piling sandbags. After standing many hours in cold, swirling water, he contracted lung disease and died in a San Antonio, Texas, hospital at only thirty-seven years of age.
Summary
Rube Waddell belonged to a simpler age of baseball. He played for the love of the game. He might have had a longer career had he taken better care of himself, but that was not his goal. He was an original, a country boy who liked to have fun in the big city.
Bibliography
Levy, Alan H. Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant Life of a Strikeout Artist. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2000.
MacKay, Joe. The Great Shutout Pitchers: Twenty Profiles of a Vanishing Breed. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004.
Shannon, Mike. More Tales from the Dugout: More of the Greatest True Baseball Stories of All Time. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
Zimniuch, Fran. Shortened Seasons: The Untimely Deaths of Major League Baseball’s Stars and Journeymen. Lanham, Md.: Taylor Trade, 2007.