Rube Marquard
| Rube Marquard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||
| Pitcher | |||
|
Born: October 9, 1886 Cleveland, Ohio |
|||
|
Died: June 1, 1980 (aged 93) Baltimore, Maryland |
|||
|
|||
| MLB debut | |||
| September 25, 1908, for the New York Giants | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| September 18, 1925, for the Boston Braves | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Win–loss record | 201–177 | ||
| Earned run average | 3.08 | ||
| Strikeouts | 1,593 | ||
| Teams | |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
|
|||
| Member of the National | |||
 Baseball Hall of Fame
|
|||
| Inducted | 1971 | ||
| Election Method | Veteran's Committee | ||
Richard William "Rube" Marquard (October 9, 1886 – June 1, 1980) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball in the 1910s and early 1920s. He achieved his greatest success with the New York Giants. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.
Rube Marquard was born in Cleveland, Ohio to German immigrant Fred Marquard and Lena Heiser Marquard. Marquard claimed an 1889 date of birth, but 1900 census data and a birth certificate show an 1886 date of birth. Lena Marquard died of an abdominal infection in 1899 and Rube's grandmother took responsibility for raising him. Marquard quit school after the fifth grade; biographer Larry Mansch writes that he "simply refused to attend any longer."
Newspaper reports first mentioned Marquard in 1905 when he played with an amateur team in Cleveland. Though pitching for a poor team that had a 1-15 win-loss record at one point, Marquard attracted attention as a top pitcher. He broke a City League record with 16 strikeouts in a game against a team known as Brittons Printing. In September, the City League season finished and he signed with the semipro Telling Strollers, an independent team sponsored by an ice cream company.
He started his minor league baseball career in 1906. Despite his nickname, he was a city kid. As he told it in The Glory of Their Times, a writer in his minor league days compared him favorably with Rube Waddell, and very soon Marquard was being called "Rube" also.
In 1907, he went 23-13 with a 2.01 earned run average and led the Central League in wins. In 1908, he went 28-19 with a 1.69 ERA and led the American Association in wins. The New York Giants purchased Marquard for $11,000 – a then unheard-of sum to pay for a baseball player's contract – and his lack of success early in his major league career led to his being tagged "the $11,000 lemon".
From 1911 to 1913, Marquard won at least 23 games each season and helped the Giants win three consecutive National League pennants. In 1911, he led the league with 237 strikeouts. In 1912, he led the league with 26 wins. He also made baseball history by winning 19 decisions in a row. Marquard allegedly celebrated by buying an opal stickpin to reward himself. Upon being told by a friend that opals were a jinx, he threw the pin into a river; but apparently the curse had already done its work, as he lost his next decision.
...
Wikipedia