page_title: Rube Marquard
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Rube Marquard / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: New York Giants pitcher Rube Marquard pitching at the Polo Grounds.
context_page_description: Richard William "Rube" Marquard was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball in the 1910s and early 1920s. He achieved his greatest success with the New York Giants. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971.
context_section_description: He started his minor league baseball career in 1906. Despite his nickname, he was a city kid. As he told it in The Glory of Their Times, a writer in his minor league days compared him favorably with Rube Waddell, and very soon Marquard was being called "Rube" also.
  In 1907, he went 23–13 with a 2.01 earned run average and led the Central League in wins. In 1908, he went 28–19 with a 1.69 ERA and led the American Association in wins. The New York Giants purchased Marquard for $11,000 – a then unheard-of sum to pay for a baseball player's contract – and his lack of success early in his major league career led to his being tagged "the $11,000 lemon".
  From 1911 to 1913, Marquard won at least 23 games each season and helped the Giants win three consecutive National League pennants. In 1911, he led the league with 237 strikeouts. In 1912, he led the league with 26 wins. He also made baseball history by winning 19 decisions in a row. Marquard allegedly celebrated by buying an opal stickpin to reward himself. Upon being told by a friend that opals were a jinx, he threw the pin into a river; but apparently the curse had already done its work, as he lost his next decision.
  In 1914, Marquard went 12–22, and in 1915, he joined the Brooklyn Robins. He helped the team win pennants in 1916 and 1920. He then played for the Cincinnati Reds in 1921 and Boston Braves from 1922 to 1925.
  Marquard finished his major league career in 1925 with a record of 201–177 and a 3.08 ERA. His 1,593 strikeouts ranked third in major league history among left-handers at the time (behind Rube Waddell and Eddie Plank), and stood as the National League record for southpaws until his total was surpassed by Carl Hubbell, another New York Giant, in 1942.
  He later pitched and managed in the minor leagues until 1933. After baseball, he worked as a betting window teller at Narragansett Park.
caption: Marquard in 1912
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