This article was written by Dan O’Brien
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/rube-waddell/
He entered this world on Friday the 13th and exited on
April Fools Day. In the 37 intervening
years, Rube Waddell struck out more batters, frustrated more managers, and
attracted more fans than any pitcher of his era. An imposing physical specimen for his day,
the 6-foot-1, 196-pound Waddell owned the intellectual and emotional maturity
of a child – although a very precocious and engaging one at that. “There was delicious humor in May of his
vagaries, a vagabond impudence and ingenuousness that made them attractive to
the public,” wrote the Columbus Dispatch.[1] Waddell’s on- and off-field exploits became
instant legends.
Known to occasionally miss a scheduled start because he
was off fishing or playing marbles with street urchins, Waddell might disappear
for days during spring training, only to be found leading a parade down the
main street of Jacksonville, Florida, or wrestling an alligator in a nearby
lagoon. Despite these and other curious
distractions, Waddell’s immense physical ability was undeniable. He complemented a blazing fastball with a
wicked curve and demonstrated excellent control with both. His strikeout-to-walk ratio was nearly 3-to-1
for his career (almost 4-to-1 in his record-setting season of 1904.)
Connie Mack,
who managed Waddell for six seasons in Philadelphia, believed that Waddell had
“the best combination of speed and curves” of any pitcher who played the
game.[2] Without Mack’s patience and
guidance, though, Rube Waddell might be nothing more than a numerous footnote
in baseball history. Mack was the only
manager able to tolerate Rube for any extended period, and that was only six
seasons. But Waddell always stayed a
Connie Mack favorite. “Dad always had a
gleam in his eye when he told stories about Rube Waddell,” said Connie’s
daughter, Ruth Mack Clark. “Dad really
loved the Rube.”[3]
Waddell’s antics have become the stuff of legend,
occasionally embroidered to make this larger-than-life character appear even
more preposterous. No, Waddell didn’t
regularly bolt from the mound to chase a passing fire wagon. But his fascination with fires was
genuine. He regularly aided
firefighters, from a bucket brigade in Pewaukee, Wisconsin to large
metropolitan departments in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, and
Washington. Yes, on occasion Waddell did
direct his infielders to the sidelines and strike out the side in the
final inning – but only in exhibitions, never in a regular-season game.
One of the great myths concerns Waddell’s background,
which helped perpetuate the “rube” or hayseed image that adorned his
career. Contrary to popular presumption,
his father was not a farmer. John
Waddell, a native Scotsman, labored in the Pennsylvania oil fields as an
employee of the National Transit Company, a division of Standard Oil. While living in Bradford, Pennsylvania – at
one time the center of the world oil production – John’s wife, Mary Forbes
Waddell, gave birth to their sixth child on October 13, 1876. Christened “George Edward,” the future “Rube”
Waddell was also known as “Ed” or “Eddie” in family circles.
In the early 1890s, the Waddells relocated to Butler
County, Pennsylvania, and settled down in the town of Prospect. In Butler County and the surrounding area,
the reputation of a burgeoning pitching talent began to grow. Teenager Ed Waddell swiftly advanced from the
sandlots to play for several semipro baseball teams in the region. In August 1896, newspapers in Titusville and
Oil City made passing mentions of an Oil City pitcher named "Rube”
Waddell, the first known reference to his famous nickname.
In August of 1897, without so much as an inning in
minor-league baseball, Waddell’s reputation earned him a tryout with the
National League’s Pittsburgh Pirates.
His seating assignment at a team meal earned a release before he ever
appeared in a game. “Rube sat beside
Manager (Patsy) Donovan,” the Louisville
Courier-Journal reported. “Patsy
heard him talk and released him as soon as breakfast was over.”[4]
The visiting Louisville colonels saw promise in the
young left-hander and signed him. Rube
made his major league debut on September 8, 1897, in a 5-1 loss to Baltimore, the
defending league champion. A week later,
he relieved in a lost cause against Pittsburg.
Louisville management believed Waddell needed more
seasoning before evaluating the majors for a full season. So, he began the 1898 campaign with Detroit
of the Western League. The relationship
didn’t last long. Waddell pitched in
nine games for Detroit before he left the team after a squabble over a
fine. He pitched briefly in Chatham,
Ontario, and finished the year in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Waddell returned to the Western League in
1899 with Columbus, Ohio, where he enjoyed his first successful season in
organized baseball, as he notched a 56-8 record for Columbus and Grand Rapids
before rejoining Louisville in the final month of the season and winning seven
of nine decisions.
Following the 1899 season, Rube made a brief return to
Columbus, where he married Florence Dunning, the first of his three wives. To no one’s surprise, Florence received a
divorce from Rube in 1901 on the grounds of “gross neglect of duty.”[5]
Before the start of the 1900 season, the Louisville
franchise was contracted from the National League, but Colonels owner Barney
Dreyfuss purchased half-interest in the Pirates and arranged for the
“trade” of 10 of his players to Pittsburg, including Waddell. Pitching for Pittsburg, Waddell paced
National League pitchers in 19900 in ERA (2.37) and was second in strikeouts
(130), but also finished with a losing record (8-13) and missed nearly two
months of the season.
Fred Clarke,
the Pirates’ player-manager, was a strict disciplinarian and had little use for
Waddell’s irresponsible nature. In early
July, Clarke suspended Waddell, who then hooked up with some semipro
teams in western Pennsylvania, finally landing in Punxsutawney. Connie Mack, then manager of Milwaukee’s
American League team, needed pitching.
He received permission from Pittsburg to sign Waddell, with the
stipulation that Waddell would return to the Pirates if they so desired. Mack convinced Waddell to leave “Punxy” and
the southpaw became an immediate sensation in Milwaukee. He won 10 games in a little more than a
month, including both halves of a 22-inning doubleheader at Chicago. Impressed by Waddell’s work with the Brewer,
the Pirates asked for his return.
Clarke and Rube survived the rest of the 1900 season
without major eruptions, but more problems arose the following season. In May 1901 Waddell’s contract was sold to
the Chicago Orphans. After winning 14
games (in 28 decisions) for the struggling Chicago team, Rube jumped ship again
and landed with some semipro teams in Wisconsin. In November Rube hooked on with a
barnstorming team for a tour of California.
Extremely popular with the West Coast fans, Rube signed with the
California League’s Los Angeles Looloos for the 1902 season.
Waddell stayed in Los Angeles for only a few months
before Mack, now managing the Philadelphia Athletics, enticed him to leave
California to bolster the A’s depleted pitching staff. Waddell agreed, and Mack sent a pair on
Pinkerton escorts to ensure Waddell made it east.
Only 87 games remained on the A’s schedule when
Waddell pitched his first game on June 26, yet the left-hander finished the
season with a 24-7 record. Rube also led
the league with 210 strikeouts, 50 more than runner-up Cy Young, who
pitched 108 1/3 more innings. The
Athletics, only two games above .500 when Rube entered the fray, finished 30
games above the break-even mark and won their first American League pennant.
In little more than half a season Waddell had proved
himself as one of the game’s premier pitchers and Philadelphia’s most bankable
star. The Athletics’ attendance doubled
from the previous year to a league-leading 420,000. Cigars, soap, and liquor were among the
products named after Waddell. The 1902
season also saw the emergence of Osee Schrecongost as Rube’s favorite
catcher. Waddell and Schreck (as his
name was often truncated) soon became known as baseball’s wackiest battery
mates, as famous for their off-the-field frolics as their on-field production.
The 1903 season was the most tumultuous in the erratic
career of Rube Waddell. In June he was
married for the second time, this time to a Massachusetts girl named May Wynne
Skinner whom he had met three days earlier.
It was the beginning of a very stormy relationship. The marriage lasted nearly seven years, but
the couple only infrequently lived together, and Mrs. Waddell often had her
husband jailed for non-support. In July,
American League president Ban Johnson suspended Waddell for five days
after he climbed into the stands to beat up a spectator, a known gambler who
had baited the pitcher.[6] Despite
starting the season 13-3, Waddell limped home to a 21-16 record. Still, he struck out a record 302 batters,
even though his season ended prematurely on August 25 when he did not appear
for his scheduled start in Cleveland.
Mack, weary of Rube’s frequent unexcused absences, suspended him for the
rest of the season. A week later,
Waddell patched up his differences with Mack, and signed a contract for the following
season with which agreed to “live up to the regular rules,” with “no favors
allowed.”[7]
From September to December Waddell toured with a
theatre company, performing as himself in a melodrama entitled The Stain of
Guilt. Baseball’s matinee idol was a
big draw at the theatres as well.
Critics, though, were largely unimpressed with Waddell’s acting
skills. “He is let out only two minutes
in each scene,” wrote the Chicago Journal, and the ensuing repair bills
are pretty bulky for even those few minutes.”[8]
After numerous disagreements over advance pay, the
company jettisoned Rube during its run in Philadelphia, unceremoniously dumping
his bags in the alley.[9] He immediately
began tending a bar in nearby Camden, New Jersey.
His 1904 campaign progressed without serious incident. Waddell won 25 games and registered a 1.62
ERA, the second-best of his career. He
also extended his post-1990 single-season strikeout record to 349, a
major-league total unsurpassed until Sandy Koufax whiffed 382 in 1965.
The Rube also demonstrated his more compassionate side
when Athletics' center fielder Danny Hoffman was knocked unconscious by
a fastball to the temple. “Someone went
for an ambulance, and the layers crowded around in aimless bewilderment,” wrote
Connie Mack. “Somebody said that Danny
might live until the doctor got there.
Then the man they had called the playboy and clown went into
action. Pushing everybody to one side,
he gently placed Danny over his shoulder and actually ran across the
field.” Rube flagged down a carriage,
which carted the pair to the nearest hospital.
Rube, still in uniform, sat as Hoffman’s bedside for most of the night and held ice to Hoffman’s head.[10]
The 1905 season was even better for Waddell, at least
statistically. He led the AL in
strikeouts (287) games pitched (46), ERA (1.48), and wins (27). His most spectacular victory was a 20-inning
contest against Boston’s Cy Young on July 4, 1905. Both future Hall of Famers went the distance
and Rube performed cartwheels off the mound once more the A’s secured the 4-2
victory. According to legend, Rube
bartered free drinks with the ball he used to defeat Young in the game. Before long, dozens of bartenders had this
“genuine” souvenir in their possession.
Despite this success, the 1905 season ended on a sour
note for Waddell. Again, he missed most
of the season’s final month. After
Waddell's victory over Young at Boston on September 8, the A’s headed back home
to Philadelphia. While changing trains
in Providence, Waddell and teammate Andy Coakley engaged in a friendly
scuffle over a straw hat. Rube fell and
injured his shoulder.[11] His season was
over, except for two ineffective appearances in the last two days of
the regular season, and he did not appear in the Athletics’ five-game defeat to
the New York Giants in that year’s World Series. Not everybody believed the straw hat tale,
however. Rumors were rampant that
gamblers had paid Waddell to sit out the series.
Mack believed Waddell was never quite the same after
the straw hat incident. in 1906
Waddell’s ledger sagged to 15-17.
Despite his losing record, Waddell ranked among the league leaders with
eight shutouts, including a one-hitter over the Detroit Tigers. Waddell’s drinking problem escalated during
the season, and a rift developed between Waddell and Schrecongost, who had
sworn off the bottle. In 1907, Rube
improved his record to 19-13 but he was ineffective down the stretch as the A’s
fought tooth-and-nail with Detroit for the AL pennant. In a key game against the Tigers on September
30, Waddell came on in relief of Jimmy Dygert and did not hold a
three-run lead. Although the game ended
in a 17-inning deadlock, the Athletics’ collapse was a crushing blow to their
pennant hopes and proved to be Waddell’s death knell in Philadelphia. In the “interest of team harmony,” Mack sold
Waddell to the St. Louis Browns on February 7, 1908 – a week after Waddell’s
wife sued his for divorce. Shortly
afterward, Waddell was accused of assault and battery on both his
parents-in-law.[12] The resulting legal
difficulties prevented him from pitching in Massachusetts, where a warrant for
his arrest awaited, during the 1908 and 1909 seasons.
Waddell responded with another 19-win season in 1908,
helping the much-improved Browns to stay in the pennant race, though the club
faded to fourth place by season's end.
Not quite the dominant force he once was, Rube was still a box office
bonanza. “He paid for himself in three
games after he was bought,” wrote St. Louis Post Dispatch columnist John
L. Wray. “He had added many thousands to
the exchequer [sic] since that time-paid admission that would never have
arrived at the gate but for the fact that Rube was scheduled to work.”[13] The Browns enjoyed a 48 percent boost in home
attendance to more than 618,000, second in the American League, while the
Athletics, tying the American League single-game record.
In 1909, Waddell’s record slipped to 11-14 with only
141 strikeouts, as his skills started to show obvious decline. His 2.37 ERA was barely better than the
league average. On April 4, 1910, after
his ugly divorce from wife no. 2 was completed, Rube married wife no. 3,
19-year-old Madge Maguire. Another
tempestuous marriage followed. Rube’s
major-league days were also numbered. He
appeared in only 10 games, all but two in relief. The Browns released him in August, leaving
him to finish out the year with Newark in the Eastern League.
In 1911, Waddell won 20 games for Joe Cantillon’s
Minneapolis Millers, helping the Millers to another American Association
championship. The following winter,
Waddell lived in Cantillon at the manager’s farm in Hickman, Kentucky, a small
village situated on a bend of the Mississippi River. When flood waters threatened to swallow the
town, Rube stood in icy water for hours helping stack sandbags for the
levee. As a result, he contracted a
severe case of pneumonia. His system weakened;
Waddell soon became a victim of tuberculosis.
He pitched one more season for Minneapolis and a part of another with
two teams in the Northern League but by November of 1913, his health had reached
the critical stage.
Cantillon paid Waddell’s way to a sanitarium in San
Antonio to be close to his parents, who had moved in with Rube’s younger sister
in nearby Boerne, Texas. Connie Mack and
Athletics’ partner Ben Shibe paid for Waddell’s medical care, with
orders that “Waddell should have the best of medical attention and nursing, and
that no expenses should be spared to either help the once might Rube regain his
health, or to ease his sufferings if his battle is to be a losing one,”[14]
The once powerful Waddell, now down to 130 pounds,
passed away on April 1, 1914, a few months shy of his 38th
birthday. “He was the greatest pitcher
in the game, and although widely known for his eccentricities, was more sinned
against than sinner,” said Mack. “He may
have failed us at times but to him, I, and other owners of the Athletics ball
club, we owe much.”[15] He was laid to
rest in Mission Burial Park South, in San Antonio.
Touchstone, 2001).
(Philadelphia: John Winston Co., 1950).
3. McGraw, John. My Thirty Years in Baseball
(New York: Boni & Liveright, 1923).
4. Okkonen, Mark. Baseball Memories, 1900-1909
(New York; Sterling, 1992).
(New York: Harper Perennial, 2010).
6. Spink, Alfred H. The National Game
(Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois
University Press, 2000).
7. The Sporting News, Cooperstown, Where
the Legends Live Forever (New York:
Random House, 1988).
8. Interview Bill Waddell, great-nephew of
Rube Waddell, ca. 2005-06.
1. Columbus (Ohio) Sunday Dispatch, April 5,
1914:14. Repeated in The Literary Digest,
April 18, 1914.
2. Grantland Rice, “Spotlight,” Indianapolis
Star, October 18, 1944: 15.
Clark, ca. 2005-06.
4. Louisville Courier-Journal, September
16, 1897: 6.
5. “Rube Waddell’s Wife Obtains A Divorce,”
Springfield (Ohio) Sun, April 6, 1902.
6. Washington Post, July 19, 1903: H10.
7. Philadelphia Evening Bulletin,
September 1, 1903: 11.
8. Chicago Journal, October 12, 1903.
9. F.C. Richter, “PHILADELPHIA NEWS
/The Erratic Waddell’s Theatrical Career
End,” Sporting Life, December 26, 1903: 5.
10. Connie Mack, “The One and Only Rube,”
Saturday Evening Post, March 14, 1936,
Vol. 208 Issue 37: 12-110.
11. J. G. Taylor Spink, ed., “Rube Waddell/His
Life, Laughs and Laurels,” Baseball
Register, St. Louis: The Sporting News,
1944), 16.
February 9, 1905: 1.
Louis Post Dispatch, August 15, 1909: 29.
Waddell,” San Antonio Express,
February 20, 1914.
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