Rube Waddell

Waddell was a remarkably dominant strikeout pitcher in an era when batters mostly slapped at the ball to get singles. He had an excellent fastball, a sharp-breaking curveball, a screwball, and superb control (his strikeout-to-walk ratio was almost 3-to-1). He led the major leagues in strikeouts for six consecutive years.\n', '

Born in 1876 outside Bradford, Pennsylvania, Waddell grew up in the country. Biographer Alan Levy writes that Waddell was "a decidedly different sort of child". At the age of three, he wandered over to a local fire station and stayed for several days. Waddell did not attend school very often, but he was considered to be literate. He strengthened his arm as a child by throwing rocks at birds he encountered while plowing the family\'s land. He also worked on mining and drilling sites as a youngster, which helped his conditioning.\n', '

Waddell\'s career wound throu…