Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant Life of a Strikeout Artist

By Alan Howard Levy

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786407867
• ISBN13: 9780786407866
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: McFarland & Company
• Length: 327 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Rube Waddell - What a charactor!

Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant Life of a Strikeout Artist I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Rube was quite a charactor! I'd put him up there with the likes of: Ruth, Satchel Paige, Jay Johnstone, Etc. I'd recommend this book to anybody. He may have been a charactor but he was a great pitcher.

The best of his time! Highly entertaining reading.

The most entertaining baseball book I have ever read! If you ask baseball fans, many have never heard of Rube Waddell. This is shocking because of two reasons: 1) He was one of the best pitchers of his time. 2) His behavior, on and off the field, was completely insane. In fact, Connie Mack said he had the mind of a 10 year old. Rube truly was the best of his times, oftentimes competing and beating Cy Young for pitching titles. In 1904, playing for the Philadelphia Athletics, he struck out 349 batters and this stood as a record for over 60 years. The author, Alan H. Levy, clearly did a considerable amount of research for the book. Each year comes to life in this book, from Rube's time with the Chicago Orphans to his last two seasons with the St. Louis Browns. It is said that only Connie Mack could handle Rube's behavior. Many times the only way to do this was to just let Rube do his thing and watch in amazement, or perhaps horror. Rube Waddell could be on the mound pitching and if he heard that there was a fire, he would simply walk off the mound and run to help put out the fire. He loved fighting fires! Many times, his coach and teammates would wonder where Rube was and he could be found selling peanuts and hotdogs as a vendor. One of his favorite things to do was to go to the local zoo and wrestle with the bears or alligators on exhibit. Where is Rube they would ask yet again? This time he was found playing marbles with kids under the baseball stands. Rube was also known for leaving a team and playing for another local team. At one point he was on the payroll for three different teams. When Rube was focused he was truly the deadliest pitcher of his time and this pitching allowed his team and fans to watch in awe as he struck out some of the best hitters of that time, such as Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford. Fitting to his overall lifestyle Rube Waddell passed away on April Fools Day. This book is both entertaining and informative. www.fatherachildsright.org Robert Pedersen

A Biography Long Overdue

Thanks to author Alan Levy we at long last have a biography about Rube Waddell, a great pitcher at the beginning of the 20th century. Contemporaries of Waddell such as Cy Young, Christy Mathewson,Grover Alexander, and Walter Johnson have at least one biography written about them and now Rube joins them in this respect. Author Levy states that Waddell had four loves in life which were pitching, fishing, fighting fires, and liquor not neccessarily in that order. Students of baseball history remember Waddell as a baseball zany for his antics both on and off the field, but what is often overlooked is that he was a very caring person who would give of himself to others. It was in this capacity of standing hour on end in cold water fighting back floodwaters by piling sandbags that led to pneumonia and eventually tuberculosis. Baseball was simply a game to Waddell whether he was throwing his fastball past major league hitters or playing with a bunch of ten year olds. Both Rube Waddell and Babe Ruth were alike in that they both were childlike in the body of an adult. Author Levy gives an excellent account of the scuffle which Waddell got into over a teammate's straw hat that led to him injuring his arm and prevented him from going up against Christy Mathewson in the 1905 World Series in which Matty pitched three shutouts. It would have been interesting to see what the matchups of Waddell and Mathewson would have provided us. It was traditional for straw hats to be destroyed after Labor Day and Rube wanted to destroy the teammate's hat. I don't see that there was any dark deeds involved between Waddell and gamblers who didn't want Waddell to pitch in the Series. Athletics manager Connie Mack gave Waddell some free reign when the two were together while Waddell gave Pirates manager Fred Clarke fits with his erratic behavior. It's true that Rube Waddell had destructive habits, but I also come away feeling that Rube Waddell had a caring side for other people that is too often overlooked.

Good old-time baseball

'a great book about a lovable but flawed baseball legend. Levy deftly captures the day-to-day life of early 20th-century baseball through the many triumphs and catastrophes of an astounding and bizarre athlete and personality. An insightful story, Levy's bio. is also good baseball. The review by Brookner makes strange claims; Eddie Plank is hardly the victim of a cover up here, and Brookner's notion of "a dead ball era without much hitting" is flat wrong. Stephen J. Gould, Bill James, and various baseball encyc's all show batting averages to have been just as high back then. (It was slugging averages that were markedly lower in the dead ball era.) Levy gets it right. Rube comes forth in the endearing and exasperating ways he must have been to his teammates. This is one of the best new baseball books out there.

Engaging Portrait

Alan Levy has done a wonderful job at documenting the slighty tilted Rube Waddell. From the start of the book, where Levy tells of a three year old Rube wandering off from his home to live in the fire station, to his untimely passing, this is a wonderful read. Any fan of the deadball era of baseball knows of Waddell's peculiar ways. Levy brings them all to life. Was Waddell mildly retarded or chemically unbalanced, Levy makes no judgments, leaving that to the reader.Waddell was an extremely talented pitcher, who usually was able to back up his boasts. He was also a talented mooch/con artist, who could scam a free drink whenever (which was often) he needed one. Levy has all the stories you can image on one of the most interesting players in baseball history. This is one of the best baseball books of the year.