Rube

The 1905 World Series may not have been so easy for Christy Mathewson and the New York Giants had it not been for Philadelphia's star pitcher, Rube Waddell, being sidelined with a sore shoulder. Some people will tell you he injured it while rough housing with the other players on the train. Other sources believe gamblers made it worth his while not to play.

George Edward "Rube" Waddell is probably the strangest player to ever play in the big leagues.

From Punxsutawney, Penn., a farmers son, he possessed a fast ball and curve so wicked that he lead the American League in strikeouts 6 years in a row. On one afternoon, he even out pitch the great Cy Young over 20 innings.

Baseball aside, it was his personality that most people remember. Before games he used to pour ice cold water on his pitching arm because otherwise he'd "burn up the catchers glove". Sometimes after a win he would do cartwheels on the mound.

He his demons though. He drank far too much, Sporting News gave him the moniker "Sousepaw". He never could quite remember how many times he'd been married (real number seems to have been 4). He would always carry a pistol with which he accidentally shot a friend in the hand. When he was on the mound his attention tended to wander. Players on opposing teams found they could distract him by holding up puppies or shiny toys. He also loved fires, and when a fire bell rung he had to be restrained from leaving the game to chase the fire truck.

Between seasons, Waddell would sometimes wrestle alligators, toured in melodrama called The Stain of Guilt, and con free drinks. One of Rube's tricks was to offer a baseball in exchange for bar credit, the ball being the one from his legendary twenty inning defeat over Cy Young and the Red Sox. There's said to be hundreds scattered across the country.

Rube Waddell didn't last long. He drank himself out of the majors, then the minors, contracted tuberculosis and died at the age of 37.