Rube Waddell

by Levy, Alan Howard

• ISBN13: 9780786407866
• ISBN10: 0786407867
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-07-01
• Publisher: McFarland Publishing

Summary

George Edward "Rube" Waddell was one of the zaniest characters ever to play baseball. The legendary Connie Mack, who saw quite a few cards during his nearly seven decade stint in the majors, once observed that no other screwball he ever saw could hold a candle to Rube. Mack also said that Rube's curveball was the best he'd ever seen. Indeed, Waddell was one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game. Rube won 191 games in 13 seasons, had four straight 20-win seasons for Mack and the Philadelphia A's, and claimed six consecutive strikeout titles. In 1904 he struck out 349 batters, a record that held for six decades. This biography traces his early life in western Pennsylvania, the fits and starts of his first years in professional baseball, his big years with the A's, and his subsequent fade into obscurity and his early death in a sanatorium on April Fool's Day, 1914.

Author Biography

Alan H. Levy is a professor of American history at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	iv
Pregame	1	(8)
Throwing Rocks at the Crows	9	(6)
A Cup of Coffee and Off to College	15	(6)
Wake Up, Mr. Clarke, I'm Here	21	(2)
A Second Cup of Coffee	23	(4)
Tiger Rube	27	(6)
The Senator from Ohio	33	(3)
The Prodigal	36	(6)
My New Kentucky Home	42	(3)
Back Home	45	(10)
Punxutawney Rube	55	(4)
Beer Town	59	(5)
Back to the Burgh	64	(5)
That Poor Pig	69	(2)
World Series	71	(2)
Get Him the Hell Off My Ball Team	73	(5)
Life in the Big City	78	(3)
The Theater Type	81	(2)
Last Place	83	(4)
The Great Mathewson	87	(3)
A Big Toad	90	(4)
Loo-Loo Land	94	(8)
The Planets Shrink in Fear	102	(4)
Goodbye	106	(3)
John McGraw
A Blaze to Glory	109	(14)
If He Does That Again, I'll..	123	(6)
Animal Crackers	129	(2)
A Rocky Start	131	(5)
Summer of Chaos	136	(14)
Unhand That Woman!	150	(2)
Coon Hunts and Straight Baseball	152	(4)
The Cy Young Series	156	(6)
Mardi Gras	162	(3)
When the Breaks Fall Your Way	165	(4)
Cy Young Again	169	(7)
Pennant Drive	176	(3)
A Fatal Straw Hat	179	(8)
Usual Spring High Jinks	187	(4)
Bum Thumb	191	(7)
Hitless Wonders	198	(9)
Mule Fritters	207	(4)
Turkish Bath	211	(8)
Oh, That Ty Cobb!	219	(9)
Divorce, Rube Style	228	(4)
McAleer's Gamble	232	(6)
Rube's Gonna Pitch	238	(3)
He Who Laughs Last	241	(4)
The Browns in a Pennant Race	245	(6)
Winter Games	251	(3)
Disappointment and Pathos	254	(8)
A Fateful Day in Boston	262	(6)
New Jersey	268	(3)
The Minors	271	(4)
Rube on the Mississippi	275	(3)
Minnesota Rube	278	(7)
Levees and Whiskey	285	(5)
Floods	290	(6)
The Crease in His Nose	296	(4)
Postgame	300	(12)
Rube Waddell's Lifetime Statistics	312	(1)
Bibliography	313	(6)
Index	319