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Rube Marquard

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Rube Marquard was born on October 9, 1886, in Cleveland, Ohio. Marquard was 21 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 25, 1908, with the New York Giants. His height was six foot three inch with weight 180 pounds. He was died on 01 June 1980, in Baltimore, Maryland.

He won 20 for Indianapolis and pitched a perfect game, the New York Giants paid a then record 11,000 dollars for his contract. At 18 he reported to the Giants in mid-September, just in time to see the game with the Cubs in which Fred Merkle failed to touch second base. Marquard blossomed in 1911, going 25-7. In the World Series against the Athletics, he was instrumental in the coining of another immortal's nickname. In Game two he was locked in a 1-1 tie with Eddie Plank in the sixth inning when he threw a high, inside fastball to Frank Baker with a man on. Baker hit a game-winning homer, and was known thereafter as Home Run Baker.

Marquard led the NL with 18 losses in 1918 despite a 2.64 ERA, Earned Rate Average. Then, on June 9, 1919, he broke his left leg sliding into third base and was out the rest of the year. He returned in 1920 to go 10-7 for Brooklyn's NL champions, then spent a season with the Reds before finishing his career in Boston with the Braves. He missed most of 1924 with various illnesses and pitched mostly in relief in 1925.

Marquard managed Providence in the Eastern League in 1926, spent part of 1927 with Baltimore, managed Jacksonville in the Southeastern League, did a little umpiring, and was a scout and coach for Atlanta in the Southern Association. He worked for many years at mutual windows at racetracks in Florida and Maryland.

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