Ralph Joseph "Rube" Novotney (August 5, 1924 – July 16, 1987) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

, a

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

who appeared in 22 Major League games for the Chicago Cubs."Rube Novotney Statistics and History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved November 25, 2011. The native of

Streator, Illinois Streator is a city in LaSalle and Livingston counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city is situated on the Vermilion River approximately southwest of Chicago in the prairie and farm land of north-central Illinois. As of the 2020 censu ...

, stood tall and weighed and attended the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

. Novotney's partial season with the 1949 Cubs included two standout back-to-back games against the New York Giants at

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...

. On June 25, Novotney singled twice in three

at bats In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

, driving in three runs and providing the margin in a 4–1 Cub victory. The following day, he was a perfect three-for-three off the Giants'

Dave Koslo George Bernard "Dave" Koslo (né ''Koslowski'', March 31, 1920 – December 1, 1975) was a professional baseball left-handed pitcher over parts of twelve seasons (1941–1942, 1946–1955) with the New York Giants, Baltimore Orioles and Milwauk ...

, but New York prevailed, 6–2.1949-6-26 box score from Retrosheet
/ref> In his MLB career, Novotney made 18 total hits (including two doubles and one

triple Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a " treble": Sports * Triple (baseball), a three-base hit * A basketball three-point field goal * A figure skating jump with three rotations * In bowling terms, three strikes in a row * ...

) in 67 at-bats.

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1924 births 1987 deaths Baseball players from Illinois Chicago Cubs players Lockport White Sox players Los Angeles Angels (minor league) players Major League Baseball catchers Nashville Vols players People from Streator, Illinois Portsmouth Cubs players Shelby Cubs players Tulsa Oilers (baseball) players Sportspeople from Redondo Beach, California {{US-baseball-catcher-1920s-stub