With the nickname “Rube,” most people assume that Richard William “Rube” Marquard was a country boy. But Marquard was born and raised in the city of Cleveland -- his father was the Chief Engineer of the city -- and Marquard carried bats for several Cleveland baseball players as a youth, including Napoleon Lajoie and Elmer Flick. In the year prior to signing with the New York Giants, Marquard worked for an ice cream company in Cleveland and pitched for their company team on Sundays. Marquard earned his nickname while pitching for Indianapolis of the American Association in 1908. In an early acknowledgement of Marquard’s extraordinary pitching ability, an Indianapolis Star article reported that the left-handed Marquard resembled one of the greatest southpaws of all time, Rube Waddell.
