There’s another Rube in the HOF: Rube Foster, the Negro League pioneer. I assume the Rube Foster on your list is the one who played for the Red Sox from 1913 to 1917, since you said Major Leaguers.
Baseball-reference.com shows 29 MLB players named Rube, 21 of whom played between 1900 and 1920. I guess that must have been a common nickname in that era for players from the sticks, of whom there were increasingly many in the early 20th century.
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