page_title: Rube Waddell
section_title: Later career
hierarchical_section_title: Rube Waddell / Later career
caption_attribution_description: English: Title: Rube Waddell, St. Louis Browns, baseball card portrait Abstract/medium: 1 print&#160;: chromolithograph with hand-color.
context_page_description: George Edward Waddell was an American southpaw pitcher in Major League Baseball. Over a career spanning 13 years, he played for the Louisville Colonels, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago Orphans in the National League, as well as the Philadelphia Athletics and St. Louis Browns in the American League. Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, Waddell was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.
  Waddell is best remembered for his highly eccentric behaviour, and for being a remarkably dominant strikeout pitcher in an era when batters mostly slapped at the ball to get singles. He had an excellent fastball, a sharp-breaking curveball, a screwball, and superb control; his strikeout-to-walk ratio was almost 3-to-1, and he led the major leagues in strikeouts for six consecutive years.
context_section_description: Waddell's drinking problem was exacerbated by a horrific marriage to May Wynne Skinner, his second of three wives, and a series of injuries in 1905 and 1906. May threatened to prosecute Rube for bigamy because she did not recognize the divorce granted Rube in St. Louis. But the divorce, granted by the circuit court on February 9, 1910, was legal so the former Mrs. Waddell had no case.
  On April 8, 1908, The Scranton Republican Newspaper published an interview with Waddell entitled, "Unkissed Girl Sought by Rube Waddell."  This article provided yet another example of Waddel's progressing instability. It is unclear as to whether Waddell's intent was to use the article as an advertisement for his desire to find himself another wife or to assist in the published article.
  Ken Burns' later documentary Baseball claimed Waddell had even lost track of how many women he had married. In time, his alcohol use began to erode his relationships with his Athletics teammates. Schreckengost, a one-time friend who regularly fetched alcohol and fishing poles for Waddell, squabbled with both Waddell and Mack for being treated differently for the same offenses.
  Waddell's increasingly erratic behavior included an incident in which he got into a fistfight on a cross-country train after making fun of a teammate's straw hat. Complaints from teammates forced Mack to send Waddell to the St. Louis Browns for $5,000 in early 1908 despite his continued success. Recent commentators such as Bill James have suggested that Waddell may have suffered from a developmental disability, mental retardation, autism, or attention deficit disorder (ADD). Not much was known about these mental conditions, or their diagnoses, at the time. Though eccentric and childlike, Waddell was not illiterate as some sources have claimed.
  To make sure he stayed out of trouble during the offseason, Browns owner Robert Hedges hired him as a hunter over the winters of 1908 and 1909. He set the league record for strikeouts in a game with 16 in 1908. Further drinking and marital problems with his third wife, Madge Maguire, plagued Waddell; he passed out in the middle of a game against New York in 1909. These incidents led to his release in 1910. He finished the season pitching with Joe McGinnity for Newark in the Eastern League, and never played another major league game. His career stats were 193–143, 2,316 strikeouts, and a 2.16 earned run average, with 50 shutouts and 261 complete games in 2961.1 innings pitched.
caption: Baseball card of Waddell
exif: {}