Rube Waddell George Edward Waddell ( October 13 , 1876 – April 1 , 1914 ) was an American southpaw pitcher in Major League Baseball . In his thirteen - year career he played for the Louisville Colonels ( 1897 , 1899 ) , Pittsburgh Pirates ( 1900 – 01 ) and Chicago Orphans ( 1901 ) in the National League , and the Philadelphia Athletics ( 1902 – 07 ) and St . Louis Browns ( 1908 – 10 ) in the American League . Waddell earned the nickname " Rube " because he was a big , fresh kid . The term was commonly used to refer to hayseeds or farmboys . He was born in Bradford , Pennsylvania . Waddell was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946 . Waddell , a remarkably dominant strikeout pitcher in an era when batters mostly slapped at the ball to get singles , had an excellent fastball , a sharp - breaking curve , a screwball , and superb control ( his strikeout - to - walk ratio was almost 3 - to - 1 ) . He led the Major Leagues in strikeouts for six consecutive years . Personality issues . Waddell was unpredictable , and had a habit of leaving the dugout in the middle of games to follow passing fire trucks to fires . He performed as an alligator wrestler in the offseason . He was easily distracted by opposing team fans who used to hold up puppies and shiny objects , which seemed to put Waddell in a trance on the mound . An alcoholic for much of his adult life , Waddell reportedly spent the entirety of his first signing bonus on a drinking binge ( " Sporting News " called him " the sousepaw " ) . Waddell ' s eccentric behavior led to constant battles with his managers and scuffles with bad - tempered teammates , and complaints from his teammates forced his trade from Philadelphia to St . Louis in early 1908 despite his importance to the team and 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 ) . Essentially , none of these mental issues was either known of or properly diagnosed at the time . Though eccentric and childlike , Rube Waddell was not illiterate ( as some sources have claimed ) . Ken Burns ' baseball documentary claims Waddell lost track of how many women he ' d married . Pitching career . At first because of his immature behaviour , and later because of his alcoholism , Waddell ' s career wound through a number of teams . His first pro contract was with Louisville ( for $ 500 ) , pitching two league games and a couple of exhibitions with the team at the end of the 1897 season . When the season ended , he was loaned to the Detroit Wolverines of the Western League to gain professional seasoning . After issues with paying rent and his being fined by owner George Von derBeck , Waddell left Detroit in late May to pitch in Canada before eventually returning to Homestead , Pennsylvania to pitch semi - pro baseball there . Pittsburgh retained his rights , however , and he was loaned to Columbus of the Western League in 1899 , continued with the team when the franchise moved mid - season to Grand Rapids , and finished with a record of 26 – 8 . He rejoined Louisville in the final month of the 1899 season and won seven of nine decisions . When the National League contracted to eight teams for the 1900 season , Louisville ownership bought the Pittsburgh franchise and the Louisville franchise was terminated . Louisville ' s top players , including Waddell , Honus Wagner , Fred Clarke , and others , were transferred to Pittsburgh . Waddell debuted with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1900 , leading the National League in ERA , but his erratic behavior led manager Fred Clarke to suspend him . After pitching semi - pro ball in small towns such as Punxsutawney , Connie Mack learned of Waddell ' s availability , and with Pittsburgh ' s approval , convinced Waddell to pitch for Milwaukee for several weeks in the summer of 1900 . Milwaukee was in the newly - named American League ( formerly the Western League ) , which was not yet directly competing with the National League . When Waddell displayed his prowess for Milwaukee , Pittsburgh management asked for Rube ' s return . By 1901 , Waddell had worn out his welcome , however , and his contract was sold to the Cubs , then managed by Tom Loftus , who had had success with Waddell in Columbus / Grand Rapids . Loftus did not have the latitude to cope with Rube that he had while he was the owner / manager in Columbus . When problems led to Rube ' s getting suspended , Waddell began pitching for semi - pro teams in northern Illinois , as well as Racine and Kenosha , Wisconsin . Frank Chance and Joe Cantillon invited Waddell to join a barnstorming team that travelled to California . While there , Waddell was convinced to stay and joined the Los Angeles Loo Loos in a league that one year later would become the Pacific Coast League . Connie Mack , now in Philadelphia , was desperate for pitching , and when he learned Rube was pitching in California , he dispatched two Pinkerton agents to sneak Waddell back to Philadelphia , where he would lead the Philadelphia Athletics to the 1902 American League crown . Mack later described his star left - hander as , " . . . the atom bomb of baseball long before the atom bomb was discovered . " Waddell ' s pitching repertoire usually consisted of only two pitches : one of the fastest fastball s in the league and a hard curve . However , Rube could throw every pitch , including slow curves , screwballs , " fadeaways " , and a flutterball on demand . Mack once said that Waddell ' s curve was , " even better than his speed . . . [ He ] had the fastest and deepest curve I ' ve ever seen . " Waddell enjoyed waving his teammates off the field and then striking out the side . He actually did so only in exhibition games , since the rules prohibit playing with fewer than nine men on the field in regulation play . But , in a league game in Detroit , Waddell had his outfielders come in close and sit down on the grass . He struck out the side . Once the stunt almost backfired . Pitching an exhibition in Memphis , he took the field alone with his catcher , Doc Powers , for the last three innings . With two out in the ninth , Powers dropped a third strike , allowing the batter to reach first . The next two hitters patted flies that fell behind the mound . Waddell ran himself ragged but finally fanned the last man . In his career , Waddell had a record of 193 – 143 , 2 , 316 strikeout s , and a 2 . 16 earned run average , with 50 shutout s and 261 complete games in 2961 innings pitched . In his prime , Rube Waddell was the game ' s premier power pitcher . In 1903 , Waddell had 302 strikeouts , 115 more than the runner - up ( Bill Donovan ) , and followed that up with 349 strikeouts in 1904 , 110 more than the runner - up ( Jack Chesbro ) . No other pitcher would compile consecutive 300 - strikeout seasons until Sandy Koufax in 1965 and 1966 . Waddell ' s 349 strikeouts was the modern - era record for more than 60 years , and remains sixth on the modern list . ( In 1946 , it was initially believed that Bob Feller ' s 348 strikeouts had broken Waddell ' s single - season mark . However , research into Waddell ' s 1904 season revealed uncounted strikeout numbers , lifting him back above Feller . ) Waddell still holds the American League single season strikeout record by a left - handed pitcher . In time , however , Rube ' s drinking , exacerbated by an horrific marriage to May Wynne Skinner ( his second of three wives ) , and a series of injuries in 1905 and 1906 , began to erode his relationship with other players on the Athletics . One - time friend Ossee Schreckengost , who regularly fetched alcohol and fishing poles with Rube , squabbled with both Waddell and Mack as Schreckengost was treated differently for the same problems . Other players complained about Rube ' s lack of dependable behavior , and following a season where Rube was the goat of a series that cost the team the 1907 pennant to the Detroit Tigers , Mack finally lost patience with him and sold Waddell to the St . Louis Browns for $ 5000 . Waddell enjoyed one successful season , helping the Browns compete in the greatest AL pennant race ever . To make sure Waddell stayed out of trouble during the offseason , Browns owner Robert Hedges hired him as a hunter over the winter of 1908 and 1909 . However , further issues with drinking and marital strife with third wife , Madge Maguire , led to his being released in 1910 . Waddell finished the season pitching with Joe McGinnity for Newark in the Eastern League . He never played another major league game . Final years . After his major league career was over , Waddell pitched for parts of three more years in the minor leagues , including a 20 - win season for the Minneapolis Millers in 1911 . In addition to pitching for the Millers , he pitched for the Minneapolis Rough Riders and with Virginia ( MN ) in the Northern League in 1913 . However , that season , Waddell ' s health had declined such that he no longer resembled the muscular and long limbed hero of the previous decade . While at spring training with the Millers , Waddell helped save the city of Hickman , Kentucky from a devastating flood in the spring of 1912 . Catching pneumonia , he lost much of the nature that had sustained him – and a second flood in Hickman and case of pneumonia in 1913 took the rest . While in Minneapolis in 1913 , he was diagnosed with tuberculosis , and eventually sent to live with his sister in Texas . Never recovering , he was placed in a sanitarium in San Antonio until he died the next spring . Rube Waddell died in 1914 on April 1 , " April Fool ' s Day " , in San Antonio , Texas at the age of 37 . He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946 by a veterans committee that looked to enshrine a number of players from his era and the previous century who had contributed to the growth of the game . One of Waddell ' s contributions was that he was perhaps the greatest drawing card in the first decade of the century , a man whose unique talents and personality drew baseball fans around the country to the ball park . In 1981 , Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book " The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time " . Under what they called " the Smoky Joe Wood Syndrome , " they argued in favor of including players of truly exceptional talent whose career was curtailed by injury ( or , in Waddell ' s case , substance abuse ) , despite not having had career statistics that would quantitatively rank them with the all - time greats . Other sports . While a member of the Athletics , Waddell also played professional football in the first National Football League in 1902 . He played as a fullback for the Philadelphia Athletics . Newspapers of the time charitably referred to Waddell as " eccentric " while others ranked him between " screwball " and " nutsy . " When football began , Connie saw a chance to keep his star in line for a few months more . He signed the lefty on as an extra lineman , against Waddell ' s recommendation that he be placed at halfback . While there is no mention of Waddell ’ s name in any lineups or game accounts , Wallace may have let the lefty into a few games when the score was safe . Regardless , it was no secret to anyone that the Rube was there to be watched . Mack was still more committed to baseball than football and worried more about losing Rube Waddell than any football game . In Elmira , Waddell was tempted to remain in a town that was home to one of the biggest manufacturers of fire engines , which he loved . Mack had to convince Rube to stay with the team . The night before the first championship game with Pittsburgh , Connie caught Rube sneaking into the hotel long after curfew . After being delivered a lecture by Mack , Waddell turned return to his hotel room . However , a loaded pistol dropped out of his pocket and fired . The bullet missed Mack ' s head by inches .