Richard William "Rube" Marquard (October 9, 1886 – June 1, 1980) was an American left-handed

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

in the 1910s and early 1920s. He achieved his greatest success with the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

. He was inducted into the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

Early life

Rube Marquard was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, to German immigrant Fred Marquard and Lena Heiser Marquard. Marquard claimed an 1889 year of birth, but 1900 census data and a birth certificate show an 1886 year 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 In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of matc ...

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 semiprofessional Telling Strollers, an independent team sponsored by an ice cream company.

Career

He started his minor-league baseball career in 1906."Rube Marquard Minor League Statistics & History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved February 1, 2013. Despite his nickname, he was a city kid. As he told it in the 1966 book ''

The Glory of Their Times ''The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It'' is a 1966 book, edited by Lawrence Ritter, telling the stories of early 20th century baseball. It is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest books ...

'', a writer in his minor-league days compared him favorably with

Rube Waddell George Edward Waddell (October 13, 1876 – April 1, 1914) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). A left-hander, he played for 13 years, with the Louisville Colonels, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago Orphans in the National ...

, and soon Marquard was being called "Rube", also. In 1907, he went 23–13 with a 2.01

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) and led the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...

in wins. In 1908, he went 28–19 with a 1.69 ERA and led the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

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". Rube Marquard

From 1911 to 1913, Marquard won at least 23 games each season, and helped the Giants win three consecutive

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

pennants. In 1911, he led the league with 237

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

s. In 1912, he led the league with 26 wins."Rube Marquard Statistics and History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved February 1, 2013. 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 A jinx (also jynx), in popular superstition and folklore, is a curse or the attribute of attracting bad or negative luck. The word ''"jynx"'' meaning the bird wryneck and sometimes a charm or spell has been in use in English since the seventeent ...

, he threw the pin into a river, but apparently, the curse had already done its work, as he lost his next decision. In 1914, Marquard went 12–22, and in 1915, he joined the Brooklyn Robins. He helped the team win pennants in 1916 and 1920. He then played for the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

in 1921 and Boston Braves from 1922 to 1925. During the 1920 World Series, he was arrested for

ticket scalping Ticket resale (also known as ticket scalping or ticket touting) is the act of reselling tickets for admission to events. Tickets are bought from licensed sellers and then sold for a price determined by the individual or company in possession of ...

in Cleveland. He was alleged to be selling eight world box seats for $350 ($ in current dollar terms), while the original cost was $52.80 ($ in current dollar terms). He was found guilty and fined $1 plus $3.50 in court costs. Marquard finished his major-league career in 1925 with a record of 201–177 and a 3.08 ERA. His 1,593 strikeouts ranked third in major-league history among left-handers at the time (behind Rube Waddell and

Eddie Plank Edward Stewart Plank (August 31, 1875 – February 24, 1926), nicknamed "Gettysburg Eddie", was an American professional baseball player. A pitcher, Plank played in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 through 1914, t ...

), and stood as the National League record for southpaws until his total was surpassed by Carl Hubbell, another New York Giant, in 1942. He later pitched and managed in the minor leagues until 1933. After baseball, he worked as a betting window teller at

Narragansett Park Narragansett Park was an American race track for Thoroughbred horse racing in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Beginnings On May 18, 1934, Rhode Island voters approved a measure legalizing parimutuel betting by an almost 3 to 1 margin. The following day, ...

Legacy

Marquard was a performer in

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

, appearing with Blossom Seeley and later marrying her. That same year, Seeley gave birth to a son, Richard William Marquard II. He was elected to the

in 1971. His selection has often been criticized by the

sabermetrics Sabermetrics, or originally SABRmetrics, is the empirical analysis of baseball, especially baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. Sabermetricians collect and summarize the relevant data from this in-game activity to answer specific ques ...

community, since Marquard's career

adjusted ERA+ Adjusted ERA+, often simply abbreviated to ERA+ or ERA plus, is a pitching statistic in baseball. It adjusts a pitcher's earned run average (ERA) according to the pitcher's ballpark (in case the ballpark favors batters or pitchers) and the ERA of ...

was only slightly better than league average. Bill James described Marquard as "probably the worst starting pitcher in the Hall of Fame." Marquard had been interviewed for the popular 1966 baseball book, ''

'', and his chapter is thought to be one of the primary reasons for his election. However, most of the stories that he "recounted" were later found to be false. Marquard died in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, on June 1, 1980, at the age of 93. He is interred in Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery in Baltimore.

References

External links

Interview with Rube Marquard
conducted by

Eugene Murdock Eugene Converse Murdock (April 30, 1921 – July 23, 1992) was an historian and author best known for his research into baseball. Early life and education Eugene C. Murdock was born in Lakewood, Ohio, on April 30, 1921, and attended school the ...

on August 2, 1979, in

Pikesville, Maryland Pikesville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. Pikesville is just northwest of the Baltimore city limits. It is the northwestern suburb closest to Baltimore. The population was 30,764 at the 2010 cens ...

. * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marquard, Rube 1886 births 1980 deaths National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Cleveland National League strikeout champions National League wins champions New York Giants (NL) players Brooklyn Robins players Cincinnati Reds players Boston Braves players Minor league baseball managers Lancaster Lanks players Waterloo Microbes players Canton Chinamen players Indianapolis Indians players Providence Rubes players Birmingham Barons players Baltimore Orioles (IL) players Jacksonville Tars players Atlanta Crackers players Wichita Oilers players Muskogee Oilers players Vaudeville performers

Early life

Career

Legacy

See also

Further reading

References

External links