The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 12 - The Rube

Episode Date: July 14, 2014

Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds discuss legendary baseball player Rube Waddell.Tour DatesSources Dollop MerchPatreon

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really good it's music by Colin McCoy edited by Vicky Pezza that's it yeah I didn't hear it nope you certainly did I was gonna pretend I did but you did not hear it so I'm pretending it's gonna pretty bad I just a small up is what I'm calling them small up little facts sure okay I just reading that people in New York are putting up fake goodwill bins all over the city so people will throw clothes in and then they just take the clothes and sell them at other stores people are fucking horrible I what I love when people wiggle around rules like you know what I mean like we always make these rules and they're

pretty good but there's always a way for somebody to be like no no I don't want to fuck with that I can I'm across the border I can yep I but it's probably like the mafia like they've probably dropped down so low yeah now they're where's they used to like Rob everybody is overall everybody at the fish market pays me a thousand dollars and now it's like hey you want to you want these t-shirts members only members only baby that's right this is one one let two left converse what do you think a gap jeans like that now what do you think a Jordash because that's what we have all right so you're a baseball fan I like

baseball but it's lower tier sports for me okay so because we have so many listeners in Australia I'm going to X I'm gonna briefly explain some of the rules of baseball really quick all I need to do is talk about the pitcher because it's about a pitcher okay you have a very devilish smile so baseball started in the like 1870s or something and quickly a professional league developed and one of our greatest pitchers of all time is named Cy Young and he pitched around the turn of the century 1900 and not the 2000 no and and we have an award named after him Cy Young yep so that's like the best pitcher baseball win that and you

know it's it's strikeouts are a big deal you throw three balls past a guy it's a strikeout that's a big deal yeah so that's what pitchers the best pitchers and when a lot of guys yes when great pitchers do it they throw no hitters where nobody gets hits and that's a huge huge huge deal so that I mean that's basically all you need to know good because we're gonna talk about Roob Waddell man well Roob is my favorite baseball player of all time okay yeah okay I think you're overwhelmed with the goodness as I can't even the story of Roob Waddell is so okay he's one of the greatest strikeout pitchers in the

history of baseball okay beginning in 1898 he set just about every pitching record there was okay now that's the exact same time that Cy Young is pitching hmm that's interesting so you think you would know about it right and I wonder why I don't he was one of the most feared pitchers in baseball okay and he was an amazing idiot what do you mean he was pretty dim okay he was literally not that smart okay but I mean I would a lot of athletes aren't no but I think right I think it's as we peel this onion you're gonna find out just how not smart he is the fact that his names Roob is great too well that wasn't the original

name he was given that might have been a nickname given to him by one of his team okay yeah so that reflects his IQ there's very little known about his youth all right but we know he grew up in Pennsylvania and he did not have a formal education mm-hmm okay so he's just a guy yeah you know all right off the hasty truck sure I want to emphasize again that he did not have a formal education okay so that's it that's the thing I shouldn't be very aware so he claimed that his childhood hobby was throwing rocks at birds and oh man that's how he learned how to pitch oh my god yeah yeah so he's you know yeah that was

his hobby sure his hobby was to throw rocks at birds yeah so that was the thing he did okay who needs books when you have that right yeah and why if you're a parent why would you want to have that kid do anything else obviously you know that's gonna translate that will obviously translate I see my kid at school I'm like just go outside and throw rocks at birds they're gonna take for him to go kill some birds with rocks be a success and you know he was you know he was killing them oh for sure cuz he if he is this amazing picture he wasn't training to pitch no he was just a little shit and then like a byproduct

of that was like hey I have a really strong right arm so by age 18 he was ready for the minor leagues in Butler Pennsylvania okay which is before you become a professional baseball player you start out in the minors and you work your way up through this this system that there's three levels to it he built his reputation by being very good-natured but he was very simple-minded catcher Jack Nelson gave him the nickname Rube which was reserved for Hicks right and it's dropped it stuck immediately everyone's like fuck yes that guy's hey you're rude yeah okay look out the bird the room also didn't

quite understand the rules of baseball when he got there now see that's a red flag for a player so in baseball if you hit the ball and the pitcher you know like a ground ball to the pitcher he picks up he throws it to first and the ball gets to the guy at first before you do you're out yes but the room when he started would throw the ball at the runner and hit the runner well now let me ask you this was the team called something like the Cardinals because then he's just going back to his boyhood game of rock throwing at first true that is true so no it wasn't it wasn't you imagine a coach seeing a guy do be

like no no what are you doing and then and then he would say the batter's out where I come from when you hit him like so he's just like you come from from the fucking crazy mountains of Pennsylvania you hit the guy with the you imagine how horrible it was to play in that league hit the ball and the people just fucking throwing this just we have the opposing team we like the pitchers throwing the balls at the players yeah that's how we do well so then his next opportunity and I don't know why this happened but Volant College which I don't think is an existence anymore volant they great school so this is when things were

different so they wanted the great players to play for them so they would like make offers for players in like minor leagues they would go yeah they would like they would like try and get right it's total opposite of today so so wait this guy who's had no education dumb as a fucking dumb as the rocks that he's stupid as a rocket is now yeah maybe going to college I mean is this a reality show or what they offered him free tuition and board what tuition and what and board I'm not bored I'm having fun and a dollar a game uh-huh and free tobacco oh I like backy this is my right hand my throwing one the college has

had seven innings per game he averaged 15 strikeouts that's pretty great that's insane yeah wait I mean how many is that that's cuz there's three innings so that's seven sets 21 so he was there's six six players were doing something other than striking yeah okay it's good more than once he called for all of the players to leave the field and he would pitch with no defense behind him what like do you know fucking mad that are supposed to and who can see everybody off the field is the coach a scare I don't fucking know what's happening and everyone just leave the field then he's just pitch and they strike the guys out

okay well you should explain why that's crazy too because you have all the people behind the pitcher who are there to field the ball and get him out so basically the pitcher is saying like if you hit it beyond me you win with the game what I would celebrate three strike innings by cartwheeling or walking on his hands or somersaulting off the field back to the dugout now I'm starting to love okay right yeah because I am so that would be the greatest thing ever this is great a guy just somersaulting yeah so cartwheeling a grown man who can't read who's telling his the rest of his team to leave the field

cartwheeling and somersaulting when he does well yeah that's rude the other team us want to kill him oh my god the other fans you imagine other fans be like motherfucker no respect so he earned reputation and next he signed for $500 with Louisville in 1986 I think that the 1896 sorry I think they were the Cardinals oh that's gonna be a paradox for him he's gonna throw rocks in himself I am a bird I don't know what to do where's rude he killed he stoned himself to death okay so club manager Fred Clark find Rube $50 for excessive drinking and Rube quit the team that was after two

days oh wow okay I'm a huge fan I have so it how this is not a movie oh my god yeah so the room packed up and headed I mean the first days like unpacking he went there he unpacked he got shit-faced yeah got fine he's got packed up and he left two days two days I mean that's really like probably like a three hours where he could just get himself thrown off and imagine what he must have done big loaded oh yeah kicked off the table baseball you can kick off a baseball team drinking he's cartwheeling and telling his team to leave the field sober also this is a team that saw what he was doing at the college cartwheeling and

telling her what to leave the field they went that guy is gonna be that's our guy and then he drinks like wait a minute meet the new face of the franchise does anyone else smell gin so he packed up and headed for Detroit oh you're there his career lasted nine games when he was fined $50 for playing at a sandlot game with local kids on his day off well he was fine for that yeah cuz they don't want him to get hurt oh okay and Roob being against fines but may I guess he quit the team so he left now no one knows where he went after this period he was gone for a few months wow he just vanished and then later that

winter someone spotted him wrestling alligators in a traveling circus oh all righty wow right yeah so I mean you thought throwing baseball to the kids in the sandlot was bad for the career holy shit yeah I mean I mean what else are you gonna do in this in the winter the way I gotta make cuz this is a time with baseball players had to make money in the off season right so why not wrestle some alligators look you mean it was it was either that or be a welder I mean okay so I mean that's so great it's the best thing ever what was your summer job

I was selling fridges over at Sears I wrestled Gators I'm sorry yeah me or my my thing but I wrestled alligators all summer okay yeah I'm trying to pitch again okay yeah we got I guess we gotta get you bird what else reappeared in the 19 and the 1899 season with the Western League's Columbus Grand Rapids team and he quickly became a fan favorite all right for two reasons first he's rude but he won 27 games all right and second he was complete fucking lunatic oh my god the room wasn't known for arriving just before game time in his street clothes so normally in baseball all the players go out and practice hitting and

they practice fielding and it's like an hour oh yeah and fans come down and they and they watch it and they get they get balls signed by the police like a big thing yeah tradition so he wouldn't do any of that he just show up right at game time and then he would stroll he would stroll through the grandstand so he wouldn't come through the players and he would come through the grandstand walk through the stadium walk through all the fans raising a commotion as he went through he would grab people's beers and slam them he would eat their hot dogs oh my god and sometimes he would start fights with

fans I mean he's made himself unfindable you cannot find him I mean I pay so much money to see but also by the same token if you're a fan yeah and like somebody like drinks your beer or eats your food you're not like hey it's awesome you're like buddy that's all the fucking feel a asshole you make money pitching I came here to see you don't eat my shit he's gonna start 20 minutes late you lost my beer and my fucking hot dog okay my kids crying oh god I gotta fight him and then you have to fight the room often he'd throw free peanuts to kids that's nice nice it said he would usually change into his uniform as he

ran across the diamond oh my god so did he also have been streaking he didn't wear underwear wait oh my let's get all the details out now get him out of the table what else we have a stick in his ass to pretend it was a tail so essentially you have a you have a big dumb guy running through the stands drinking beer and then he would shed all its clothes and changing his uniform on the diet and win the game and then be the best guy out there oh my god every everything everything before the running along the field and changing I can get in a way that is sort of just like yeah just change you

change somewhere else there's a locker room he doesn't have time though he's out there he just wants to play the game no time I have time to eat hot dogs and beat up fans but changing I'm gonna need to combine that and reproaching them the diving he was easily distracted so opposing opposing fans would hold up puppies oh yeah he would run towards them wait wait wait so wait so he'd be pitching a guy would be up a bat someone would hold up a puppy run over to pet it or grab it I mean he's now gone from being really not smart yeah maybe lobotomized he could have been although lobotomies weren't invented yet but I

would imagine if they were he might have gotten lobotomized it sounds like he might have invented them on accident somehow he was also distracted by shiny objects I mean and they would put him in a trance on the mound where he would just sit there and stare at them so you could go to a game and hold up like a spoon and he would just stare at it there would be like come on now hit him with the puppy his head just explodes there he goes wow the roux but also just leave in the middle of games to go fishing wait what the fuck I mean really what do you what do you do he's the best player besides

so young I mean he's the best player of baseball except sometimes he in the middle of the game he just walks off the mound because he wants to go fishing it sounds what are you gonna do because he gave you half a good game at tonight's game there are no puppies or shiny objects allowed near the pitcher all right room I think you hit him with a stink ball right here let's get out of here yeah I'm gonna go fishing I'm sorry I will go fishing now no we're in the middle of the I'm done today we're in the middle I gotta fish before it's dark bye I'm gonna change changing oh god there it is we need a new pitcher there

that means a pitcher it just always be like oh coming in again should we find him he no don't find him okay so this is the best this is the most well-known fact about Ruben Waddell okay if a firetruck went by the stadium I'm gonna need to stop I I I doesn't matter what the rest of the statement is right this is a problem okay if a firetruck went by the stage he would chase it no every time what he would always chase a fire truck I'm starting no matter where it was these does he maybe have a dog brain he likes puppies shiny things get him and fire trucks well he wasn't formally educated yeah but still just your brain

become a canine brain he would only eat out of bowls on the floor he had to have a little door in his regular door to crawl outside to go make boom oh god I would love to see that I'm just running out of the state even all the players like oh fuck I mean if the man the manager'd be like look if we can get through today with no fire trucks no puppies yeah no shiny objects and he doesn't want to go fishing we got a shot but he like also if you're cuz this is when fire fire stations were they weren't public so you would pay them like if you had a house you give them a monthly fee in case your house caught on

fire and then come and put it out so if you didn't pay a fee they would just show up and let it burn so potentially you could pay the fire department just be ordering yeah you can just order yeah go by the stadium at four and then the room would run away real bro now room where you guys going Louisville owner owner men so this is back now we're probably gonna go back to Louisville right so he's been he's been playing for other teams he's been at Grand Rapids so Louisville owner manager Barney Dreyfus got word no sorry was he not in Louisville before he was he was okay that's where he got right but so now there's a

different you know manager yeah a different guy wants to roll the dice on his career so they got word of a success and brought him down to Louisville Dreyfus heard the National League was gonna consolidate and shut down his Louisville franchise so he bought this guy bought the Pittsburgh Pirates okay and traded the entire team to Pittsburgh and then just put a bunch of shitty players in Louisville so when they shut down the Louisville franchise he'd be like well I got a team over here okay he just basically pulled the fast one and so but that all of a sudden made Roob suddenly in a really big city so he's

never been in a big city okay so now he is playing baseball in front of very large crowds I don't like that for Roob and he's playing with Honus Wagner okay huge historical baseball player and Fred Clark so he's he's with a good team one of the great position in a great city yeah he's in one of the original eight teams but I just worry Dave that there's gonna be too many things to distract our little dog we'll see we'll see I got a bad feeling why don't we just see what happens I just want to say I'm on record I don't feel like I don't know why you say that because it's called the Cy Young Award so

far one teammate of this era recall Roob soaking his left arm and buckets of ice for hours at a time claiming sincerely that he feared he'd burn up the catcher's glove if he didn't cool it off so he thought so he does no science no no he's not good with physics and science he doesn't get that you he's seeing cartoons his mind lots of them a ball can catch on fire another person if you throw it hard Roob hold on I gotta keep awesome my arm otherwise I'm gonna hurt that poor catcher lot him on fire what I'll read the lead the league in 1900 with a 2.37 era oh wow beat he's beating Sayang at this point he's better than

say he's better than the guy the award the award is named after Sayang and he's better this guy's better yeah I got a bad feeling but he racked up an unimpressive 8 and 13 record okay it was part of that because there were so many fire trucks many of his defeats came as a result of his high rate of errors okay most people believed he committed so many errors because of his habit of drinking at local taverns as a pregame ritual where he was known down to suck down suck down many beers and put on an apron and play bartender aren't you pitching today yeah oh man how many fingers oh my god I don't like a ritual

yeah a pregame ritual gotta get not that he would go every now and then and have a pop for the game he's still pitching great yeah but when they hit the ball at him he can't throw it to first cuz he can't pick it up cuz he's so so the thing he can do is throw it really hard at a very small space oh yeah the guys just like alright guys we're just gonna bunt today rooms hammer oh my god just bunting back and just by laughing their asses and then someone holds a puppy up and room just like falls in his own dugout I mean there's a lot of hurdles in this guy what else player manager Fred Clark suspended him in late June of

that year it turns out the room like to pack pistols and one day he threatened to shoot his manager full of holes and I like how he's still not getting fine I love that he's a drunk guy he's drunk who's bringing guns to the loaded guns threatening to kill enough ready to kill my god you'd be like wow I thought we had problems when he was just showing up shit-faced for games he's gonna kill me so he was he was kicked off the team and found himself playing for an independent team in Puxentani of Puxentani yeah that's where the ground hot yeah Pennsylvania legendary manager Connie Mack upon hearing of rooms

availability immediately signed him for his franchise the Milwaukee A's okay my home city yeah now we're now in your area yeah so that you should know about him yeah well I I think we probably referred him as monkey paw love love at first sight yeah like now under Mack what I'll finally begin to excel in one of his most famous feats after pitching a 17 inning game the Rube turned around and pitched the second game of a double header completely shutting out the opposing team Jesus so he pitched so normally today a pitcher will pitch seven innings is the norm yeah sometimes eight if he's doing real sometimes nine of

his doing awesome but but generally generally like if someone throws a hundred and twenty five pitches that is like way too much that's where that's the line people like yeah you might have done too much this guy through triple the normal amount Jesus in one day and shut them out and was had a dog's brain and had a dog's brain I mean if yeah if you're the other team you're like Jesus Christ now why did he do it why did he do it on that day what do you think was his motivation oh Jesus Connie Mack promised him an all expense paid three day fishing trip so he performed that's why his feats and baseball is that's why

he's doing better in Milwaukee he's surrounded by beer and the guys knows how to work him now he's putting carrots on sticks three-day fishing yeah sure I'll soil my career for three days in a photo I'll keep throwing only before game straight we're only doing two today okay sure I'll keep pitching after the game the first game was 17 innings 17 and he still pitched that's two games already two games Jesus Christ another game what his fascination his fascination with fire departments continue throughout his time with the ace and he now was routinely wearing red under his clothing just in

case the bell would ring so wait wait wait no no no now now he ain't just chasing him now he's taking his clothes and he's all coming red he's helping them super fireman so now the middle of the game if the fire engine goes by he becomes a fire he becomes a fireman he's a fireman now sorry you talk to the fire department about this no she like just like showing up to be like aren't you pitching what what's the problem here where we're gonna get it let's go he looked all rocks at that fire dirty fire it deserves rocks oh my god yeah so it's not like it's not like he's straighten himself out to other teams

so the pirates demanded his return they were like he's still in a contract with us we didn't actually fire him he just threatened to shoot someone he just left or whatever happened so within two games he was dropped by a drop by them and so then okay when he was dropped by Milwaukee he was dropped by oh fuck you know selling Lisa or drop him off the bridge anything you want as long as you get him off my team oh so so that so they got him back Pittsburgh got him back so Pittsburgh and then he was there for two days right so it's very hard to follow because he has a lot of tears a lot of two-day stints yeah as a matter

of fact that might be a good nickname instead of the room old two-day stints so after two days back at the pirates what the fuck could he have done Fred Clark yelled at the owner sell him release him drop him off the monahigala bridge do anything you like to him so long as you get him off my team so he was not wanted yeah is he just holding a grudge cuz he threatened to murder kind of petty isn't it so he spent the majority of the 1901 season with the Chicago orphans wow horrible team name horrible team name right the orphans unless they were orphans then it's all that it's terrific if the orphans did

everything and then if he goes to the orphans that's my favorite team ever yeah no yeah oh my god the bad news bears in 1901 but I'm assuming they weren't all orphans no that's just a terrible name the owner was just the this is a team of people of people whose parents have died the guy walking the stands like growl they read your girl the original name was Chicago dead parents good good where the Chicago stillborns let's get them but he was suspended for erratic behavior wait Roop a lot of that was because he kept chasing the fire engines I mean at some point yeah he got a 13 and 515 record mostly blamed on

fire trucks going by the stadium it's slowly becoming evident that really the big problem here was fire much like Frank what Frankenstein feared if they could keep the fires under control then the room would have a better record yeah but I mean I can't believe that nobody was able to over the span of time get through to him yeah that just don't chase those what do you mean don't chase the fire trucks Roop why please stop running after fire trucks and pitch you're not a fireman right but they go by yes and I go by that's the part I'm having a huge problem with yeah okay well I'm glad we did this yeah bye Roop he

later spent a month playing semi-pro ball in Wisconsin and then traveled to the West Coast once in California he refused to leave signing on with a Los Angeles franchise for the 1902 for the 1902 season okay then in mid-June uh-oh two Pickerton guards sorry working the for the Philadelphia A's oh boy Connie Mac boss tracked him down and dragged it back to Pennsylvania so took him so now you why don't they just get a fire truck to drive by and chase like have him chase it back to the old club this isn't the team that fired him after two days last time this is the team before that yeah he wanted him back so

they kid kidnapped him I mean it's not like you could just make you can't just take a guy back to work in another state that's called kidnapping slavery yeah kidnapping yep that's slavery he's been fired so many times do you think when he got fired at one point ever he misunderstood and it was like excited fire fire fire fire no no root leave leave the bad fire so they brought him back to Pennsylvania and Mac who was considered the only one to be able to control him right and he really wasn't able to all that no no one was able to control I mean nobody could take the fire truck out of his heart huge problem so

basically Mac brought him back and tried to like put him under house arrest like that's that's how they figured great idea that's how they figured to take care of it yes so this is when this is when pro athletes had to two jobs they play baseball and then they do their what a regular job right so Mac forbid the Rube from alligator wrestling in the offseason which he was still doing why I can't so instead for additional income he started playing rugby for a Pennsylvania team okay so that's his offseason job that better and now everything went awesome okay so he's like getting all of his energy out he's

playing to sports he's never not playing a sport he's like a kid okay and so he this is a years of stability that he led the league in strikeouts for the next five years now this is when Cy Young is playing yeah he's leading he's pitching better than five years five years it's a long time five years Cooperstown historian Lee Allen described 1903 in the life of Rubo Adele he began that year sleeping in a firehouse in Camden New Jersey it's just insane he's just and ended in a firehouse he's like the Dalmatian ended it tending bar in a saloon in Wheeling West Virginia in between those events he won 22 games

for the Philadelphia A's courted married and became separated from Mary Wayne Skinner saved a woman from drowning accidentally shot a friend in the hand and and was bitten by a lion that was a year dude wait wait I mean it was the circus he got bitten by he's saved a woman from drowning he shot his friend in the hand he was a bartender played rugby sleep in a firehouse he got married I mean right do we know how he got bit by lion it just it's just in the it's just in the in the hall of fame it says that shot his friend in the hand I know why the wife left yeah that year sounds like a little

shaky yeah it wasn't a great marriage so now he's playing legendary baseball and his only competition on the man was the Hall of Famer contemporary so young that was his only competition at the time no one else is as good as those two guys okay except one was a normal human and the other one was crazy yeah one had a dog brain and one was a man his popularity skyrocketed the citizens of Philadelphia loved him of course oh how would you know people who are from other places Philadelphia has the most horrendous sport sports fans yes in the country they they they used to throw batteries they embrace how horrible

they are they really they wouldn't even be offended by no that's right yeah yeah I'll never forget when when the Giants won the World Series and Tim Litzkin was walking off the mound and they're just all these people holding up signs above the dugout saying how horrible his teeth are oh god yeah yeah and then he and then he shot him out won the game yeah I'll just just like four people holding up signs about his crooked teeth that's why we need them someone's got to do it so Philadelphia delighted in a star who would show up at saloons and then work at the bar the fact he was known to to play almost as much ball with local

kids as with the professional counterparts endeared him to the city so now they're letting him play with kids yeah when you say no to that yeah he wrestles alligator so let him do it yeah that's like the least trouble he can get yeah let him play ball at the kids yeah you stopped him from doing what playing ball with kids he might hurt his arm you moron of you any idea what you've just done he's gonna try to he's gonna get bit by a lion now he was especially popular with local firefighters who actually put him up in local firehouses for dated days at the time so he was basically living at

firehouses around Philadelphia I mean I mean come on we just come on he's so cute can he just stop fireman he's like a four-year-old I know he is like a lot of people believe that it was because of the firefighters that the Rube earned his reputation for heroism okay after saving two men from drowning while on a duck hunting trip now wait he's already saved a woman from drowning he saved people all the time so now he's saved two other men from drowning okay stories of the rubes person for life-saving began to circulate it is believed that the Rube may have throughout his life saved as many as 13 live he's just he's so

simple he's so simple he's so simple he was always on alert danger yes winning here lion pet lion pet lion oh fruit punch hand he was always on alert the Philadelphia Daily News wrote in 1905 how he was on a houseboat cocktail party when he heard someone scream for help okay without a moment's hesitation Rube dove into the frigid waters and succeeded in rescuing a passing log a passing log yeah the person who screamed was on the boat he just jumped in and grabbed a log look you don't you don't save 13 lives by waiting to find out you know it's sometimes you're gonna get along sometimes you gotta go get

hypothermia and rescue wood oh look hey you guys I got her well she's okay everyone she'll be fine hopefully she don't catch on fire okay so he's popular right yes I would I would guess that this man would be popular so what happens to players when they're super popular in America now well they other careers yeah the other career obviously they run for a political office perhaps Rube took a turn at acting oh boy he toured the nation in the vaudeville play the stain of guilt and received critical acclaim they did not cheer as acting because he was allowed by his fellow actors to improvise all his lines oh my god oh my

god since he was incapable of remembering oh my god oh yes yes oh to be there oh to see a man who chases firetrucks improvise why sir have you taken my beautiful Bridget you know you got a lot of anger yes that is darn you scoundrel I'm old leave and hug that lady it's the greatest thing ever making up his line I mean as a like a professional actor who would probably be like standing there just like yes all right now wait for that that void look to just vanish for a moment here we go now reply with my line yeah it would be there would have nothing yeah nothing in common maybe you should ask me where you

want to go later he was lauded for his ability to quote throw the villain twice as far as Kyle blue so I know Kyle blue is but but he was picking up the actor who played the villain and heaving him across the stage improv yes I am he was able to parlay his success as an actor into higher wages at the ballpark wow because now he was a big star he's a star he's a star in 1904 he got 150 yearly pay raise from the Philadelphia athletics all right so he's rolling in it right yep that year I don't like him with money I'll say that fair totally fair that year Rube also inspired one of the first extended major league contract

negotiations on record okay surprised right yeah because it doesn't seem like he would know be capable of negotiating no contract I I have a feeling he didn't or something his catcher and roommate Aussie a shrek and ghost was the one who was negotiating the contract ballplayers generally room two to a room while on the road they actually still do that yeah still share the shrek couldn't handle the nighttime habits of the room and refused to renew his contract until the a's inserted a no eating crackers and bedcloths I mean oh they shared a bed just pounding crackers to the point where

that is a sticking point in your contract I'm just not gonna be next to him eating crackers anymore in 1904 Rube set baseball's all-time strikeout record at 349 wow which said for 61 years the 1905 season saw an epic duel of the pitchers Rube and Cy Young in a 20 inning throw fest so for 20 innings they went head-to-head really give up a run Jesus Rube took the game ball probably most sought-after baseball in years and gave it away for free booze at a local tavern Jesus Christ can you imagine that ball would be the most historical ball I mean what am I one of the most external and all of baseball is without

question with a game away for some beers and he gave it away for like a couple shots I think I know why they call him the Rube and then after he died every bar in Philadelphia be like I have the ball no one actually knows what the ball it's kind of good in 1905 Rube's old ways start to come back during one weekend Rube is cited as a hero for preventing a serious fire in a crowded department store he picked up a blazing oil stove and carried it from the building what is he for his gun yeah but he's like a giant force go I mean yeah he's like he's like forced up in like a Hulk body for his talk a force talk flaming gas stove

for oil stove I mean a highly flammable stove it's fucking it's like a bomb he's carrying bomb yeah he saved the life of teammate Danny Hoffman who had been hit in the head by a wild pitch so he must have no he must have picked up some some with the firemen he must have picked up some skills as far as doing CPR or whatever he was arrested on bigamy charges Jesus Christ this point he's married a couple years turns out he had forgotten the divorce his first wife Rube yeah he forgot he also fled town to avoid charges after he attacked and badly injured his father-in-law because his father-in-law was like what the fuck

you're you're married to someone else and then he like tried to kill him you're in trouble now he's later cleared of all charges but this is sort of the beginning of the end this sort of the beginning of the downside of the room okay so it's getting a sad okay we're gleaming the Rube yeah gleaming the room he did lead his team to the 1905 World Series but couldn't pitch because of an injury what what animal bit him oh well the injury happened because Rube was making fun of a teammate straw hat and they ended up getting in a fight on a cross-country train train holy shit you straw hats stupid

rude stop stupid ha ha he's pretty shit face rumors fled flew that gamblers had gotten to Rube paying him to keep him out of the series uh-huh eventually the story that a New York betting syndicate had put Waddell up in a Manhattan penthouse with a group of showgirls took hold and the A's demolished the Giants four games to one so people now blame him for the loss and think that he's corrupt. So he went from being classic Philadelphia, he went for years being this awesome hero that Arrow is drinking with and he's playing with the kids, he's in the sand lots and then he gets hurt and they're like you fucking animal.

Put him down. That's exactly, he was defended by Mac but he can never overcome the rumors, the fans turned against him and he was traded in 1908 to the St. Louis Browns. Okay. There he set a single game strikeout record of 16 against his former teammate. Jesus Christ. So it's the team came to town, his old team, he fucking struck them all out, but the other than that he was pretty mediocre, they were trying to keep him at a trouble so they hired

him as a hunter for the season, for the off season. What? So. I'm going to need you to break that down a little bit for me. So they didn't want to work in a bar or wrestling alligators so they, so they hired him as the team hunter and then he would go shoot animals and bring them back and the owners would eat them, the other people that worked with him. They invented a job for him, they made up an occupation.

The team hunter? You've never heard of a team hunter? I've never heard of a team hunter. Yeah, everyone's got him. You know, Rube, we're thinking of promoting you. Oh. Yeah, we want you to be team hunter. Oh, God.

Yeah, and you just go out in the woods and you just kill animal and bring it back to us and that's really important. That's a big job. That's like GM. Okay. Is that a straw hat? Nope. Okay.

It was the first time he avoided scandal in years and he kept the team stuck with duck and venison but he was drinking more and more. That's one of the downsides of being team hunter. In 1909, in a game against New York, he passed out on the mound. From heat? After giving up a home run. So, he threw a ball, a guy hit it over the fence and then he laid down and took a nappy nap.

I so want to see, I so want to see players picking up another guy off the mound because he's plowed. I want to see everything. And taking him off the field. Just. It's the greatest thing ever. Sleeping. Well, fuck, I'm going to bed.

Rube, Rube, Rube. Someone called the fire department to get him to drive by. Woo. So, St. Louis released him in 2010. He found himself pitching in the Eastern League's Newark, France, so now he's in Newark. So shit's not. No. That didn't pan out.

Then he moved to Minneapolis to pay for Joe Cantillon's Millers. Now he's in minor league baseball. Why? How old is he? I don't know. So. Well, he was 18 and so he's nothing. He's like 30.

Yeah. But then. I know, but he's 30. Yeah, he's 30. True. But he's put a lot of miles on the odometer. He really did some living. Yeah.

He's not a regular 30. He's a bit, been bitten by a lion 30. Yeah. Right. Right. Now he's got a really close manager with a close relationship with his manager. Okay. That seems important.

Yeah. Because he couldn't take care of himself. So. No. Joe, the manager, has him move into his house. Okay. And then in 1912, a local dam broke. Well, I mean, if I know our room, I'm going to guess he's got to go help.

A dam broke. It's time to rip off his regular like play clothes and get his fire uniform on. Well, he had read. I'm sure he was sleeping in red. Yeah. He had a firetruck bed. He volunteered to stack sandbags to block the rushing stream, standing armpit deep and freezing waters for 13 hours.

That's actually kills two birds with one stone, though, because then he's not going to light the catcher on fire. No, he's not. He contracted pneumonia from which he never fully recovered. Jesus Christ. From then on, he was plagued by injury illness, pneumonia, which was made worse because of his nonstop drinking. Right.

That'll hurt. He pitched poorly for the Minneapolis Millers in 1913, concerned by the drastic decline of his health. Joe sent him to San Antonio Tuberculosis Sanitarium in 1914. So that's not good. No. That's like it. You're going to die now.

Right. Place. So he died there on April Fool's Day 1914. He was 38. Let me just say that that's a great day for him to go. Right. Yeah. He died on April Fool's Day.

It's a great day for him. I mean, it's perfect. Yeah. It couldn't be better. He'd be happy. So, OK, so he's 38. OK. He was penniless.

OK. He was notorious for not being concerned about money. In his best season, he made $2,500, which was given to him $10 at a time by Connie Mack. Smart. You definitely want to be doing it like that. You don't want to give him $2,500. You know, he's going to be like, look, I bought a robot. Oh my God.

Oh my God. Rube. Rube. That's a garbage can. No. No. No. No.

No. It's silver. Me and my friend are a robot. We're going to solve crime murders. Oh my God. Oh, Rube. Oh, Rube. Oh, sweet.

Sweet little Rube. Oh, Jesus. Oh, fire engine. Yeah. He was buried in an unmarked grave in a San Antonio potter's field. What? How fucked up is that? That's so fucked up.

A few months later, his baseball playing friends passed a hat and provided him with a gravestone. Former teammate. Oh, God. It's the track. Yeah. Yeah. The guy. The cracker.

The cracker buddy. Yeah. The cracker guy. Provided the insightful epitaph for the headstone. Rube Waddell had only one priority to have a good time. Right? That seems pretty fitting. They almost went with party machine.

Fuck machine. When he died, he had no idea how many women he had married in his life. Wow. I mean. Yeah. Slept with. Sure. Yeah.

Right. Married. Married. That's crazy. So more than 10? Yeah. Yeah. 15 to 50.

I don't know. So you can meet women and drug and stupor and then marry them. Well, if you don't learn any facts. Yeah. When you're being brought up. Yeah. You could very easily think that you could marry anyone. Right.

And it was just like a sweet thing you did. No, this is like if Tarzan played baseball. That's totally, totally. Right down to the shout that probably he did behind the fire trucks. He did live at the right time though, because if I mean, if he was alive, if this guy was alive today, today, get out of here. I mean, he wouldn't get anywhere near anything. Even being the greatest, one of the greatest pictures of all time, he wouldn't get near

anything. No one would let him play. No, he would be like one of those guys who had like a show on spike. Yeah. He'd have like a reality show. Totally. And he'd be, he just like have his own league in a cornfield somewhere and people would try to come and hit him.

He'd be like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, but the voice was fake. Wait, are you saying that voice wasn't fake? In Field of Dreams? Well, no, that it is real in the movie. Okay. Right? Maybe you believe it's real in real life. No.

No. But in, no. Don't rub me. Don't make me rub. Bastard. So they would have nothing to do with him today. No matter how talented he was. But it's crazy that even with all that shit, don't you think that he still should be known

as, I mean, like Babe Ruth, for instance, the greatest baseball player of all time was a fucking alcoholic, a womanizer, just a glutton. Yeah. And we know him. But this guy is known, if you bring up his name, he's known as the guy who chased the fire trucks. Like he's not known as 13 major league seasons. He led the league and strikeout seven times.

He won the pennant in 1905 at a record of 27 and 10. Seven shout outs and ERA of 1.48. ERA of 1.48 is fucking insane. And it's just, it is just that he chased too many fire trucks. And that he was a crazy boo sound. I got bit by lions. Yes. But even with that, I think you get that on its own that you can maybe play with that.

It's the fire station trucks firemen. Well, what about the going through the crowd and grabbing hot dogs and fighting people? Crazy. Crazy for sure. But in that story, that was brought up one time. Yeah. The amount of times that he chased fire trucks or slept at a fire department or were firemen outfits was 10 to 15.

No, yeah. So I get why that plagued him. Why wasn't he just a fireman? Why just, I don't understand how you couldn't possibly, nobody could talk him down from this? No. Nobody could say, Rube, listen. Imagine how much they tried. During the games, don't.

Rube, please. During the games, don't. Do you know how many times he had that conversation? Oh, a thousand. Oh my God. Endless. Endless. Today.

And still. Please don't chase the fire trucks. No, Rube. Just today of all days. Rube, when we hear a fire truck today, we're not chasing it, right? Don't chase it. That feels very noncommittal. I'm not going to put you out on the mound if you're going to chase it like I told you,

Rube, so. I'm serious. You better not. My God. Is that a fireman's uniform underneath that? It's just red. God damn it. I like red.

No, Rube. Do you hear that? I want to know how he got bit by the lion. He was petting it, right? He was probably trying to do something that you just shouldn't do with a lion. I mean, whatever it is, he probably looked at it like a big dumb cat, you know? He's probably like, pretty kid, he might get purr. And then the lion was like, sir.

Excuse me, sir. A dominant creature. A glorious animal. Glorious. Wrestling alligators. There you go. Wow. I think better than the story of Doc Ellis, who pitched a no-hitter on Asher.

I agree, even though that is its own amazing story. That is a day. That is one day where a guy took Ashen to know who's pitching, and then pitched a no-hitter. I think you show me a highlight reel of both of these guys. One of them is going to be two hours, one hour and ten minutes. Wow. How do you feel? I feel like more people should know about the mood.

It should be a movie, right? That should absolutely be a movie. How is it not a fucking movie? I mean, it's a dark comedy. Well, you would need to be scaling it back. You'd be like, what are we going to lose? There's too much shit to cover. You would have to scale it back.

Something. Because it's insane. It doesn't stop. And we got to put the firetrucks in there. That's something. A lot of firetrucks. It is a period. It's a lot of the budget there.

That's most of the budget there. Yeah. I don't know where you're going to find all those firetrucks. Fuck. If you have any topics, you think I'm mostly just doing American stuff right now. I might branch out. I'm trying to avoid politics. Yeah.

Unless a story is really crazy, but I just don't want to get into all that shit. You know, I don't I don't want to be. Well, that's just just what mostly people do is rip on each other about politics. I hate all. Yeah. Parts of it. There's a really crazy story that's happening in Mississippi right now. I might cover it.

It's fucking insane. But for the most part, I just don't think it's fun. Well, I also think it's just when you get involved in that, like to me, I'm always like, if you step back from the world of politics, it's just all so fake and fabricated to kind of arguing like this. Yeah. It's like us arguing about like Disney characters. Yeah.

But I mean, there's a lot of fucking idiots. But I mean, someday I might do one about stuff. Just stuff Ronald Reagan has said. Oh. Or fucking W. I mean. Yeah, you could you could do you could do Reagan, George. We could do Reagan versus W.

And you could put Tony Abbott in there as the Prime Minister of Australia right now. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. And you would not be able to tell who's saying the dumber thing. I my guess is you'd be get confused between Abbott and Reagan a good amount. I had one trees cause pollution. Who said that? Well, see, that's not Bush.

I know that's not Bush because that is misleading. Not really just crazy. That's like an attempt to get. So I'll say Tony Abbott. Reagan. Wow. What a fucker. Who said also who called the Greeks Grecians?

I'll go with Abbott as George W. Bush. Who said that missiles after fire can be put put back in the submarines can be recalled. Reagan. Yeah. We will be able to retract the missiles back out of the submarines.