Rube Waddell by Alan H. Levy

Author:Alan H. Levy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2012-10-10T04:00:00+00:00

NOTES

1. Philadelphia Inquirer, March 13, 15, 1904.

2. Ibid., March 25, 1904.

3. Ibid., March 18, 1904.

4. Ibid., March 25, 1904.

5. Ibid., April 4, 1904.

Chapter 31

The Cy Young Series

One of the highlights of the 1904 season involved the duels between Rube Waddell and Cy Young. They squared off four times that year. Of the four duels, only one was even a trifle lackluster. The rest were truly memorable. The first occurred early in the season, on April 24. Both teams had high hopes. The A’s expected to contend for the pennant as they had in 1902. Boston, of course, was the defending champion. At the outset of the first April game, Rube started blazing. He had a perfect game going for five innings. Meanwhile, the A’s had put two runs over in the first inning. Thereafter, Young completely handcuffed them. After the first, the scoreboard man hung up nothing but 0’s and the fans heard only the loud pops of Young and Rube fastballs as they hit their catchers’ gloves.1 Round one went to the Rube, 2–0.

The next time Rube and Cy Young squared off was on May 5. Both teams’ expectations for a strong season were proving true, and they were in the thick of the early-season scramble for the lead. Three days before, Rube had pitched a one-hitter against Boston. The Pilgrims’ one hit had been but a limp, slow roller in the fourth inning, which Rube actually could have fielded, with the runner legging it out for Boston’s only single. The only walks Rube yielded came in the ninth inning, when he got a little cocky and the outcome of the game was certain. In the wake of the one-hitter, Rube was feeling utterly full of himself, even by Rube standards. Just before the May 5 game, he strutted haughtily in front of the Boston dugout, bragging about what he was going to do to them. “I’m going to give you the same thing I gave … the other day.” George LaChance was on the bench, but he refused to come out and wrestle. Cy Young heard every word, however, and he got his own dander up a bit. Old Cy didn’t need to do any wrestling; he would let his pitching speak for itself. “I’d been watching him,” Young recalled. “He was a damned fine pitcher, but he ran his mouth quite a bit. I figured he was calling me out and I had better do something about it.”

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