George "Rube" Deneau

George Deneau was a Canadian minor league baseball player, manager, and promoter who played on a number of Ontario and Michigan teams between 1898 and 1915. Known best by his nickname "Rube," he was born in Amherstburg, Ontario, about 20 miles downriver from Windsor, and died in 1926 at the age of 47. He was remarkably popular with fans in his day, and newspaper reports routinely refer to the teams he was on as "Deneau's Boys," "the Deneauites," and (projecting his large build onto the entire team) "Deneau's huskies."

Deneau was primarily a pitcher but he also did well as a position player. His lifetime batting average (based on professional league games only) was .275 over ten seasons, 780 games, and 2918 at-bats. Of his 803 hits, 98 were doubles, 16 triples, and 22 home runs. Slugging percentage: .241. On-base percentage: .275.

As early as 1898, the right-hander's play with local teams began to attract the attention of scouts. Professional offers started rolling in by 1901 from teams such as Detroit, Philadelphia, and Buffalo, but for several years he turned them all down, preferring to work in Windsor as a diver. By 1902 Deneau was pitcher-manager of the Windsors baseball team, of Windsor, Ontario. In 1903, the team won 19 of the 23 games it played against semi-professional teams all over Western Ontario and Michigan. In that same year he added to his fame when he recovered the body of a small boy who had drowned in the Detroit River; previous efforts to drag the river for the child had been unsuccessful.

In 1904 he was on the Detroit Tigers payroll as a "try-out" but did not make the roster. He did get at least one paid gig with the Merrill, Michigan team, which was in the habit of salting the line-up with professionals. After the regular season, Deneau found ways to keep playing baseball. In October he played for the amateur Crickets of Windsor's neighboring community Walkerville, and in December he helped set up an indoor baseball league for the 21st Essex Fusiliers, the forerunner of the Essex Scottish Regiment, with a team for each of the eight companies comprised by the regiment. Rube also managed, coached, and captained a regimental team, drawn from the best of the eight companies.

In the 1905 season Deneau played for three different teams. In March he re-signed with the Windsors, who the Detroit Free Press said had been the "terror" of the region for the past two years with Deneau as their "star twirler and manager." He also played for Saginaw against other Michigan teams; the Detroit Free Press reported him pitching for that team on June 21 (losing 3-2 before 300 fans) and for Norris, the winningest team in the City League, on Sept. 18 and Oct. 4 (winning the latter 3-0, attendance 175).

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