Marquard, "Rube" (Richard W.)
Baseball
b. Oct. 9, 1889, Cleveland, OH
d. June 1, 1980
His father wanted Marquard to be an engineer and, when he left home at sixteen to play professional baseball, he was told never to return. They didn't see one another for ten years, but then his father paid a surprise visit to the New York Giants' clubhouse, and they were reunited.
Marquard rode freight trains to get to that first job in pro baseball, in Iowa, but he ended up playing in Canton, OH, not far from Cleveland. his last minor league start was a no-hitter; immediately afterward, the NL's New York Giants bought him for $11,000 and Marquard joined the Giants at the end of the 1908 season.
New York sportswriters dubbed him the "$11,000 Lemon" after he went 5-13 in 1909, and a 4-4 record the following year didn't help. Then he broke through, leading the league with a .774 winning percentage on a 24-7 record and in strikeouts with 237 in 1911.
In 1912, he won his first 19 decisions, a modern major league record, en route to a 26-11 mark, leading the league in victories. He was 23-10 in 1913, when the Giants won their third straight pennant. Marquard was 0-1 in the 1911 World Series, 2-0 in 1912, and 0-1 in 1913, as the Giants lost all three.
He slumped to 12-22 in 1914 and was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1915 season. He never won 20 games again, but he did have some good years in Brooklyn, including a 13-6 record and a 1.58 ERA in 1916 and a 19-12 record with a 2.55 ERA in 1917. The Dodgers sent him to Cincinnati in 1921, when he was 17-14. It was his last winning season. He ended his career with the Boston Braves from 1922 through 1925.
After retiring as a player, Marquard managed in the minor leagues for several years and then became a parimutuel clerk at Maryland racetracks.