Rube Waddell, the deadball era’s strikeout king

Rube Waddell, the deadball era’s strikeout king

George wadell nicknamed rub was an American original and unlike anyone else from the dead ball era at the time of his death in 1914 he was described as the Peter Pan of baseball or to make a more contemporary comparison PeeWee Herman evokes his childlike spirit and boyish pursuit of fun everywhere wadell went including the ballpark he brought along his colorful unpredictable personality and attention deficit disorder rube chased fire trucks conversed with fans during the game and might disappear for days at a time before showing up to win both games of a double header there was a whimsicality to just about everything he did teammates once found their star underneath the grand stands playing marbles ru’s Antics and we’ll get to those in a bit are the stuff of Legend but it is what he did on a baseball diamond in the early 20th century that made him a national celebrity let’s talk about rub wadell the dead ball eara strikeout King in his time as in ours the 300 batting average marked exceptional hitters while the very best pitchers surrendered fewer than three runs per nine innings of work one thing was not common at all strikeouts pitchers averaged two or three of them per game and starting pitchers capable of throwing 10 or more did not exist it started with Sandy kofax and continued with Nolan Ryan and then those kinds of starting pitchers became relatively common Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez are two examples from the 1990s while Max Scherer and Chris sa are two examples from the 20s and then another big shift occurred baseballs thrown at speeds of 100 miles an hour or more have become relatively Common Place flamethrower a Rus Chapman a relief pitcher averages 15 strikeouts per nine innings of work that figure is absurdly out of line with ratios 50 or 100 years ago the point is Ru wadell was the oldest Chapman of the dead ball era from 1902 to 1907 wadell dominated hitters in the American League with unseen strikeout numbers during that six-year run wadell threw 37 shutouts and averaged nearly eight strikeouts per game The Tall husky Southpaw from Pennsylvania had a freakishly good fast ball and a wicked curve probably the only comparable pitcher during this six-year window was the national League’s star right-hander Christy matthewson in 1904 wadell struck out 349 batters which Remains the American League record for a left-handed pitcher but his great gift was control for every three batters wadell struck out he issued one walk in contrast Bob Feller and Nolan Ryan could strike you out with high heat but they consistently LED their leagues in walks wadell left baseball in 1910 with a career strikeout ratio of seven batters per nine innings that’s a good ratio in our time but he did it in the dead ball era and his career strikeout ratio is almost twoo higher than Walter Johnson and dazy Vance and one higher than Bob Feller Satchel pagee ended his long career with a strikeout ratio of 7.7 higher than Rubes but then none of these guys come close to Sandy kofax kofax blows them all out of the water so wadell was this superhuman strikeout pitcher from the dead ball era but so much of his celebrity had to do with off field Behavior biographers have called him a zany artist and King of the flakes Sports writers always use the term Ecentric he was impulsive flamboyant mischievous and unpredictable he would disappear midseason and go go fishing where’s rube nobody knows gone fishing he pranked teammates hiding their bats and gloves or sneaking up on a teammate to give a big scare fire trucks fascinated rubbe and he even left the pitcher’s mound to chase them rube loved animals and especially the playfulness of puppies he was reported to have wrestled alligators and a walrus in the off seon he was like peee Herman who famously said I’m a Loner daddy a rebel each of his three marriages ended in divorce all of his managers expected Obedience of him but wadell would not obey he wasn’t really defiant so much as he simply would not subordinate himself to the group now manager Connie Mack enticed him to pitch for the Athletics and it was in Philadelphia at Columbia Park where wadell put up historic numbers and Drew massive crowds boys adored him the Press loved to speculate about whether Connie ma would release the Rascal and everyone wanted to see or read about the grown man who refused to grow up ru’s personality did lead to problems he spent money impulsively too much of it drinking in saloons and he could never settle into a stable domestic life but wadell had a heroic side too when Athletics center fielder Danny Hoffman was knocked unconscious by a fast ball to the temple rubbe rushed into action he carried Dany off the field flagged down a carriage and rushed him to the hospital all night long rubbe held ice to Hoffman’s head now that’s someone you want on your side when the going gets tough the Athletics eventually sold him to the St Louis Browns where he amused crowds for three seasons and put up very good numbers before the Browns released him in 1910 rubbe found his way to new adventures in Minnesota playing minor league ball before his health took a sudden turn for the worst he caught a severe cold after standing in icy waters for hours working to save a town from flooding in Kentucky George rub wadell died of tuberculosis on April 1st 1914 age 37 during his short life wadell captured the American imagination in Way’s modest mature men sa young Walter Johnson Christy matthewson did not rubbe was the king Kelly of the dead ball era a big personality who entertained crowds and did whatever he wanted no manager or wife could tame him like Peter Pan or PeeWee Herman he evoked the spirit of Adventure and freedom of Youth except he had a powerful beautiful grown man’s body in many respects rub wadell passed his brand of celebrity onto another George George Herman Ruth Babe Ruth came along and took up the mantle of the American Sports hero who refused to play by anyone’s rules except his own and to have fun doing it both rubbe and Ruth were original irresponsible and revolutionary they did things on and off the feel that no one had done before in part two of this series I’m going to look at another left-hander whose sixe run of dominance marked the beginning of a whole new era in major league pitching let me know what you think of this episode and thanks for watching [Music]

This video looks at Rube Waddell, the dead-ball era’s eccentric strikeout king. Part II of the series about Sandy Koufax appears below.