Richard William Marquard, nicknamed “Rube”, was born October 9, 1886 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Tall and gangly, with a cannon for a left arm, Rube Marquard made headlines around the country in 1908 when the New York Giants purchased his contract for the unprecedented price of $11,000, by far the largest amount of money ever paid for a ballplayer.
Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 27 of the 2010 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 1 week of July.
July 31912 Giants’ southpaw Rube Marquard wins his 19th consecutive game from the start of the season beating the Dodgers, 2-1.
Richard William Marquard, nicknamed “Rube”, was born October 9, 1886 in Cleveland, Ohio.
Tall and gangly, with a cannon for a left arm, Rube Marquard made headlines around the country in 1908 when the New York Giants purchased his contract for the unprecedented price of $11,000, by far the largest amount of money ever paid for a ballplayer.
He eventually proved his worth by leading the team to three straight pennants, during which he won 24, 26 and 23 games, respectively. In 1912, he earned victories in his first 19 decisions.Marquard relied more on control and a forkball changeup than his fastball. He later said, “Any hitter can hit a fast one but not many can hit slow ones.”
For two years Rube dominated the minor leagues. He won 23 games at Canton in 1907 and 28 the next year for Indianapolis in the prestigious American Association, breaking league records at both stops. By late summer 1908 Rube had drawn the attention of several major-league teams, including the Giants.
At age 18 he reported to the Giants in mid-September. Somewhat panicked by the size of the crowd, Marquard hit lead-off batter in the ribs, then walked the next two batters. After a visit from the catcher the nervous rookie decided to “let up a little.” Marquard later admitted, “I let up, all right, Hans Lobert hit the next pitch right out of the park.”
For the next two years Marquard continued to struggle, winning a total of only nine games. In 1911, however, Wilbert Robinson joined the Giants as an assistant coach and made Rube his special project. Under Robinson’s tutelage, the 24-year-old left-hander finally fulfilled his potential, posting a 24-7 record and leading the National League in winning percentage and strikeouts.
The following year Rube enjoyed his greatest season, going 26-11 and winning two more games in that year’s World Series against the Boston Red Sox. His 19-game winning streak began with his first outing of the year on April 11, when he beat Brooklyn’s Nap Rucker, 18-3. Nearly three months later he defeated Rucker again, 2-1, for the final game of the streak. In between Marquard beat every team in the league at least twice, including Brooklyn, Boston, and Philadelphia three times each.
He completed 16 of the 19 games, surrendering only 142 hits and allowing only 42 earned runs. When he finally lost to Chicago on July 8, his record stood at 19-1; at the time only two other National League pitchers, Rube Benton and Larry Cheney, had as many as 10 wins.
Rube became an instant celebrity, advertising products, writing a newspaper column, and even starring in a silent movie called “Rube Marquard Wins.” He also appeared on the Broadway stage, singing, dancing and telling jokes, and there he met the beautiful Blossom Seeley, the so-called “hottest girl in town.”
Noticing the chemistry between Rube and Blossom, enterprising managerial agents booked them to appear as a duo at New York’s Palace Theater. Audiences loved them and soon they were appearing on stages across America.
“Marquard & Seeley” sang, joked, and flirted onstage. Though Blossom was married, she and Rube began a love affair, a fact that caught the attention of the tabloids. Blossom divorced her husband and married Rube in March 1913.
Marquard posted his third consecutive 20-win season in 1913, finishing at 23-10 with only 49 walks in 288 innings, less than half as many as he had walked in fewer innings only two years earlier. After that, however, Rube struggled. He went 12-22 with a 3.03 Earned Run Average in 1914 and got off to an even worse start the following year, even though he pitched the only no-hitter of his career against Brooklyn on April 15. He pitched the no-hitter in one hour, 16 minutes.
In August 1915 Marquard arranged his own sale to Brooklyn, now managed by his old mentor Wilbert Robinson. Once again Uncle Robbie helped him resurrect his career. Rube won 13 games with a career-best 1.58 Earned Run Average for the pennant-winning Robins in 1916, and posted a 19-12 record the following year.
Marquard led the National League with 18 losses in 1918 despite a 2.64 Earned Run Average. Then, on June 9, 1919, he broke his left leg sliding into third base and was out the rest of the year.
He returned in 1920 to go 10-7 for Brooklyn’s National League champions and appeared in his fifth World Series.
Before Game Four a Cleveland undercover policeman arrested Marquard for attempting to sell his box-seat tickets. The judge, believing that the negative publicity was punishment enough, fined Marquard only $1 and court costs, for a grand total of $3.80. Brooklyn owner Charles Ebbets wasn’t as forgiving; on December 15 he traded Rube to Cincinnati.
With the Reds, Marquard had his last winning season in 1921, going 17-14 with a 3.39 Earned Run Average. He hoped to finish his career with Cincinnati, but after the season the Reds traded him to the Boston Braves. Rube held on for four mediocre years, finally retiring after the 1925 season. By that time he was divorced from Blossom and managed in the minor leagues for a few years but tired of the constant travel.
Eventually he remarried and lived quietly in Baltimore, working at pari-mutuel horse-racing tracks and spending his winters in Florida. One year after his wife died in 1954, he married for a third time, this time to a wealthy widow. Rube had plenty of money, traveled the world as he pleased, and was content.
In the early 1960s Marquard was interviewed for the popular baseball book, The Glory of Their Times. His chapter is thought to be one of the primary reasons for his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. However, most of the stories that he “recounted” were later found to be false.
In 1971 he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rube Marquard died on June 1, 1980, at the age of 93 in Baltimore MD.
A large part of this biography comes from the SABR Baseball Biography Project written by Larry Mansch. It can be found online at http://bioproj.sabr.org
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball DictionaryUnder the letter: KKeep the team in the game
For a starting pitcher to keep the score close even though his team may not be leading. Typically, a pitcher leaving the game in the sixth inning with a 1—0 deficit would be congratulated for “keeping the team in the game.”
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Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
