Richard William "Rube" Marquard was born on October 9, 1889 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was one of five children raised in a middle-class household. Drawn to baseball at an early age, Marquard was a batboy for the American League Cleveland team (then the Broncos, later the Indians). Growing to six foot three by his midteens, Marquard became an accomplished left-handed pitcher.
In all likelihood, he graduated from high school in Cleveland, but there is no evidence of any participation in interscholastic sports.
As he related in an interview with Lawrence Ritter in the 1960's, his father, Frederick Marquard, was against his determination to be a major league pitcher and even, in the face of Rube's defiance, refused to speak to his son until late in Marquard's baseball career. At age seventeen, Marquard tried to hook up with Waterloo of the Iowa State league. Given no advance contract, he rode freight trains to Iowa, where he won one game but, still given no contract, left the team and returned home. He was signed by Indianapolis of the American Association in 1907 and won twenty-three games with Canton (Ohio) that year and twenty-eight with Indianapolis in 1908, striking out 250 batters. A perfect game against Columbus late that year so impressed scouts that the eighteen-year-old phenom was offered an $11, 000 signing bonus by the New York Giants, the largest ever paid up to that date. The "$11, 000 Beauty" (as he was labeled) so disappointed the Giants and manager John McGraw in the next two full seasons, however, that sportswriters started to dub him the "$11, 000 Lemon. "Over the next three years, Marquard became the best left-handed pitcher in the National League, winning seventy-three games between 1911 and 1913. This turnaround is credited to Wilbert Robinson, then a Giants coach, who helped him control his curveball and mix his pitches. In 1912 he won his first nineteen decisions, an achievement never since equaled. His only two World Series victories came in the 1912 series with Boston. He and Christy Mathewson (his longtime roommate), the league's premier right-handed pitcher, teamed up in three consecutive World Series from 1911 to 1913. By the end of 1912, Marquard was a New York celebrity. He began a vaudeville career and in 1913 teamed with the actress Blossom Seeley in a popular dance act. At the time, she was married to Joseph Kane, who won a $4, 000 settlement from Marquard in an alienation of affection case.
Marquard's baseball career began to falter as early as 1914, when he lost twelve consecutive games en route to a 12-22 season. Nevertheless, that year he did win a twenty-one-inning complete game against Pittsburgh. He dickered with the Brooklyn team of the short-lived Federal League prior to the 1915 season, but McGraw prevented his jumping to that league. In April 1915 he pitched his only major league no-hitter, against Brooklyn, but soon fell into greater disfavor with McGraw. In an unusual maneuver, McGraw permitted Marquard to trade himself to Brooklyn, a team managed by Wilbert Robinson, for $7, 500 later in the season. After 1915, Marquard was inconsistent, winning only ninety-six games in ten more seasons (five with Brooklyn, one with Cincinnati, and the last four with the Boston Braves). He pitched in two World Series with Brooklyn, but lost his only three decisions. A broken leg and appendicitis, respectively, afflicted his 1919 and 1924 seasons. Only twice did he win more than thirteen games in a season. Marquard finished his career with a record of 201 wins and 177 losses (some record books show 204-179) and an estimated earned run average of 3. 08. He turned to minor league managing from 1926 until the early 1930's, even umpiring in the Eastern League in 1931. He then left baseball and worked several years as a betting-window clerk at various racetracks in Florida and in the Baltimore area, where he settled in 1930. Marquard died of cancer on June 1, 1980 at his home in Baltimore.
Rube Marquard is known as Hall of Fame Major League Baseball Player. He was a left handed pitcher, making his debut with the New York Giants on September 25, 1908. In 1912, he earned victories in his first 19 decisions, won 24 or more games three straight years (1911-13) and pitched a no-hitter in 1915. He ended his career with a record of 201 wins, 177 loss, 1593 strikeouts, 197 complete games, 30 shutouts, 19 saves and a 3. 08 earned run average. In 1971, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee.
The origins of Marquard's nickname are not entirely clear. While still in the minors, he (or his fastball) was likened in appearance to Rube Waddell, then a star left-handed pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics. Despite accounts stressing Marquard's urbane demeanor, dependability, and sobriety (he claimed to have never smoked or drunk alcohol), the nickname stuck. Forty years after retiring as an active player, Marquard was featured along with several other early ballplayers in the book The Glory of Their Times, in which he recounted his adventures in baseball, stating that he "loved every minute of it. " It must be acknowledged that some of his assertions of fact are not documented elsewhere. For example, his claim that his father was the city engineer of Cleveland during his youth is not verified in official sources. Some believe that his profile in the Ritter book was responsible for his selection in 1971 by the Veterans Committee (for the pre-1925 era) for election into the Hall of Fame, while others point out that in 1971 this committee expanded the number of its selections to four per year. A. W. Laird ranked him as thirty-seventh among all major league pitchers playing between 1893 and 1987 in Ranking Baseball's Elite, and among the top ten left-handed pitchers in the history of the game. While others (such as Bill James) may not list Marquard among the very best southpaw pitchers of all time, his credentials are clearly on a par or exceed many of his fellow baseball Hall of Famers.
In 1913 Marquard married the actress in a popular dance act Blossom Seeley; this marriage ended in divorce in 1920. Marquard married Naomi Wrigley in 1921; upon her death in 1954, he married Jane Ottenheimer.
