[.ca] Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant Life of a Strikeout Artist (ISBN 0786407867)

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.

Rube of Rube's...:
I read the reviews and at least was prepared ahead of time for what was to transpire. Although the previous review was somewhat harsh, honestly and truthfully so, he did make some solid statistical and fundamental points to which I cannot and will not dispute. Afterall, a book is a book and you make the most of it despite some flaws. My review is this...I really enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought that I ever would. Knowing what I already knew about Rube Waddell; his eccentricities, his pure raw talent, his peculularities and on and on and on...this was a terrific read and is a terrific book. The only chapter in the book that I found somewhat more than necessary, and a detractor from the overall effort, was the final chapter. This chapter was more the author injecting his sociological views on Rube and society in general, as it pertained to Rube's time and to our time. The general definition of the meaning of "Rube" and "Babe", and why it holds so much more intrigue and affection than "Iron Horse" and "Joltin Joe", as well as the personalities behind them. Compare this to that and that to this, is what this final chapter is all about. If I did not know any better, I'd say the author was stuck in too simple a style of writing and just had to let loose with his own pent-up intellect. Not saying this is a bad thing, but honestly the book stood very well on it's own without this chapter. Subsequently for me, this chapter brought the lightness and simplicity of the overall effort crashing to an abrubt halt. Where I seldom was forced to do any thinking other than to transport myself to Rube's time and world and enjoy the stories for the sheer fun they presented, this last chapter ruined that little world and forced me into a view beyond the previous chapters to a very heavy and honestly, too deep thinking end. The author did a terrific job at keeping the entire book very light and fun to read. The final chapter was in my opinion, not necessary. Rube Waddell was a remarkably simple man in an uncomplicated way. Mr. Levy portrayed that beautifully and with enthusiasm. For that I commend him for entertaining me with style.

Rube Waddell, there will never be another one:
Great book for anyone who loves vintage baseball.

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.

Didn't know he was a Minneapolis Miller:
According to some, Rube Waddell was the greatest pitcher to ever play the game. In 1904, he struck out 345 batters, during a time when hitters choked up on the bat, just trying to make contact with two strikes. Rube was also the first great drawing card. Because of him, new stadiums were built in Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Boston. Levy says, "He was among the game's first real drawing cards, among its first honest-to-goodness celebrities, and the first player to have teams of newspaper reporters following him, and the first to have a mass following of idol-worshiping kids yelling out his nickname like he was their buddy." Rube was also one of the game's all-time greatest "characters". He would call his infielders into the dugout and strike out the side. He would do handstands and cartwheels after a victory. He would make animal noises while pitching. Unfortunately, he would also get into bar fights, drink too much, and disappear on a whim. Eventually, Rube's manager, Connie Mack, got tired of Rube's unreliability and shipped him off to the St. Louis Browns, where he lasted two mores years before being banished to the minors. He pitched for the Minneapolis Millers for two years after that, hoping to be noticed by a major league team. It never happened. The Millers trained in Hickman, Kentucky, which was plagued by floods. Always the fireman, Rube pitched in, sandbagging alongside black laborers (Quite the no-no in those days). He contracted pneumonia and was told to move to a warmer climate. Dropped by the Millers, Rube played for a team in Virginia, Minnesota, his skills increasingly abandoning him. Rube refused to take care of himself and he eventually would up being arrested as a vagrant in St. Louis and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He spent his last days in a sanitarium in Texas, his weight dropping to a hundred pounds. When some major leaguers who were in Texas for spring training came to see him he said, "I'll be over tomorrow and show you bums how to run. May weight is down to fighting trim now. I'm in shape." Rube was married three times, during a time when divorce was almost unheard of, his last spouse leaving him because, "Rube's just too crazy." Alan H. Levy is a history professor at Slippery Rock. I think he relied too much on newspaper accounts and not enough on interviews (albeit they're hard to find after almost a hundred years). He does quote from Connie Mack and Mugsy McGraw's biographies, but none of these characters really come to life, not even Rube. Rube's three wives are practically invisible. I also had a hard time with Levy's somnolent final chapter, possibly because the main point of interest was already dead.