Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-01

lot of cheap advertising. showed fake
telegram from Waddell and claimed he
had offered him big money to jump The
manager in question succeeded in his pur-
pose and got his name in nearly every
paper in the country. This all goes to
show it's awful to be famous
Few pitchers have taken part in as
many memorable battles as Waddell. A
number of his hardest games have been
against the grand old veteran Cy Young,
and strangely enough. the eccentric
sou,hpaw has been the victor in most OF
them. The only really great victory Cy
has to his credit over Rube Is the game
E which he shut out the Athletics with
out hit or run and prevented a single
member of MackS tribe from reaching
first base.
Rube, of course. had to have his hand
in the seventeen-inning tie between the
Tigers and the Athletics last year. which
really proved to be the all-important
game of the season. Waddell began the
game in characteristic style by striking
out four of the first SIX men VINO 1aced
hin.. He ended up rather inglorIously.
however, for it was one OF Rube last
ones that Cobb hit over the fence. with
a man on base. and tied the game.
Despite his many great pitching feats,
Waddell has yet to record a no-hit game
in the big leagues. On number OF oc-
casions he has come dangerously close.
The nearest call. perhaps. was In the
Riddle of the season of 1906, when he
blanked Detroit, allowing only one bingle.
The single scratch credited to Detroit
happened in the first inning on the first
mar up Cobb dumped the first ball
pitched down the first-base line. 1t looked
as IL Rube would be able to throw him
out, but Harry Davis. fearing hurl
into the bleachers. motiOned for Rube
to hold the ball. The hunt, of course.
went for a hit. and that's all Detroit
got that afternoon.
Waddell is charged with throwing lots
of games away, but when one considers
the game of base ball. what player
doesn't lose his share of games on wild
heave. a careless play or failure to think
quickly? It's only human 10 err. ana
Rube has merely contributed his part
Judging from this, one would naturally
think that Rube would be a hard loser
and would crab over every misplay OF his
teammates. but such is far from the truth.
for he takes defeat gracefully: some
critics insist that If he regarded the game
in a more serious light he would be far
greater pitcher, and there appears 10 De
plenty of sense in such contention.
The great southpaw lost one or the
toughest games in Detroit last year tnat
any pitcher ever had credited To the
wrong side Of the ledger, yet he left the
be happy Most pitchers would have
been sore for a week. but Rube had ap-
parentIy dismissed it after the last man
had been retired.
Killian and Waddell were the pitchers
in the game in question and both were
twirling great ball. Rube had the edge
on his southpaw rival. Waddell allowed
only four hits and struck out a dozen
men. vet he lost his game ) to =. Doc
Powers threw bunt over Harry DAVIS
head into right field, and Nichols, who
vas playing short, tossed one into the
Nrst- hase bleachers. These two heaves
gave the Tigers all their runs and turned
What should have been shut-out defeat
into i victory.
Most of the stories credited to Rube
have advertised his fool qualities; lew
Of them have eXtolled any of the clever
things that he has pulled of.
Waddell always liked to see Bender win.
and when the big chief was on the tWlrl-
ing mound the RUDE was always pulling
for him to cash. Before the rule was
adopted that any ball hit into the grand
stand or bleachers should not be put back
into play Rube used to put one over on
the uurpires every time Bender worked.
Unbeknown to anybody Rube would take
a seat in the grand stand IN citizens
clothes If the ball hit into the grand
stand was fairly old one Rube would
allow it to be returned. but II ii a
fairly new one he would Immediately
toss one of his old balls back onto the
diamond. In this way Bender would often
be relieved of the difficulty of working
with a new ball with the gloss on it.
The trick worked for quite awhile, and