Rube Waddell Marquee Hall of Fame 1946

He led the American League in strikeouts in six consecutive seasons, from 1902 through 1907, and finished with 2,316. He won 27 games in 1905 and took the pitching Triple Crown, then missed the World Series that fall with a shoulder hurt in a scuffle with a teammate over a straw hat. Philadelphia lost the Series.

He left the park to follow fire engines, wrestled alligators in Florida in the winter, and disappeared for days at a time. Connie Mack fined him and paid part of his salary in one-dollar bills to slow his spending, then handed him the ball again: in 1904 he started 46 games and finished 39 of them.

His 349 strikeouts that season were the most in either league until Sandy Koufax struck out 382 in 1965. He finished 193-143 with a 2.16 earned run average, sixth-lowest among pitchers with 2,000 innings here. He died of tuberculosis on April 1, 1914, at thirty-seven, two years after standing in floodwater in Kentucky stacking sandbags.