Rube Waddell, Pitcher and Phenomenon

George Edward Waddell was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, and raised in Prospect, a small community in Butler County not far from here. Known to everyone as Rube, he was one of the most gifted and unconventional pitchers the game has ever seen.

With the Philadelphia Athletics in the early nineteen hundreds, Waddell led the American League in strikeouts six consecutive years, a record that stood for generations. He won twenty or more games four years in a row and finished his career with one hundred ninety-three victories. Off the mound he was equally legendary, chasing fire trucks, wrestling alligators, and disappearing for days at a time, equal parts ballplayer and spectacle. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in nineteen forty-six, the same year as pitcher Big Ed Walsh.