Rube Waddell’s Labor of ‘Glove’
From SABR member John Odell at Cooperstown Chatter on September 7, 2011:
I recently crossed paths with one of our older gloves, which I knew was used by Rube Waddell in a 20-inning game. The smooth, brown leather glove, lacking a web, laces between the fingers and nearly any padding, looks more like a driving or work glove than the early-20th century baseball glove it is. It has long intrigued me, so I took the time and opportunity to research both the game and the glove.
Legendary Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack donated the glove to the Hall of Fame in 1942 – an artifact from a game the Athletics had played in Boston 37 years earlier, on July 4, 1905. On that day, Philadelphia’s Rube Waddell pulled the glove on in preparation for confronting Cy Young, as the pair of future Hall of Fame pitchers faced off in the second game of an Independence Day doubleheader. Young, 38, might have been a decade older than Waddell, but he was still the ace of the Boston Americans (today’s Red Sox), and had thrown a perfect game the year before at home to beat Waddell.
Read the full article here: http://community.baseballhall.org/page.aspx?pid=620&ncs1816=0
Originally published: September 7, 2011. Last Updated: September 7, 2011.