Rube Waddell

HandednessBats Right · Throws Left

Listed at6 ft 1 in · 196 lb

BornOctober 13, 1876 · Bradford, PA, USA

MLB debutSeptember 8, 1897

Final gameAugust 1, 1910

Seasons13 (1897–1910)

Louisville Colonels 1897; Louisville Colonels 1899; Pittsburgh Pirates 1900; Chicago Orphans 1901; Pittsburgh Pirates 1901; Philadelphia Athletics 1902–1907; St. Louis Browns 1908–1910

Percentile snapshot

1909 season — qualified pitchers

41.7

58.3

41.7

20.2

46.4

SHO

82.1

204

32.1

41.7

48.8

141

88.1

220.3

53.6

ERA

2.37

WHIP

1.185

39.3

K/9

5.76

90.5

FIP

1.94

91.7

FIP-

80.0

88.1

ERA+

102.3

35.7

sWAR

1.7

38.1

of 85 qualified 1909 pitchers (min 154 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

134.6

97.9

sWAR

53.3

99.1

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1897	2	6	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-83.8	-100.0	.000	0.2
1899	10	34	34	2	8	2	0	0	3	0	7	0	.235	.235	.294	.529	43.9	44.6	.248	1.4
1900	30	82	81	6	14	2	3	0	9	0	15	1	.173	.183	.272	.455	24.6	24.6	.210	4.6
1901	32	103	101	16	25	3	3	2	14	2	23	2	.248	.262	.396	.658	85.3	90.9	.304	3.8
1902	34	117	112	8	32	6	2	1	18	4	17	1	.286	.310	.402	.712	90.2	93.5	.329	8.2
1903	39	124	115	4	14	2	0	0	6	3	36	0	.122	.151	.139	.290	-15.7	-13.9	.141	4.9
1904	46	147	139	6	17	3	0	0	6	6	37	0	.122	.164	.144	.308	-9.5	-3.5	.154	8.1
1905	46	126	116	4	20	3	1	0	10	4	34	0	.172	.200	.216	.416	27.9	31.7	.202	8.0
1906	43	100	86	5	14	1	1	0	3	8	32	2	.163	.242	.198	.440	40.2	37.2	.227	4.5
1907	44	107	101	4	12	2	0	0	3	4	38	0	.119	.152	.139	.291	-12.3	-7.7	.148	3.7
1908	43	103	91	4	10	4	0	1	8	8	35	0	.110	.190	.187	.377	26.0	24.0	.195	4.4
1909	31	78	75	2	5	1	0	0	2	3	23	0	.067	.103	.080	.183	-50.2	-41.7	.097	1.7
1910	10	10	9	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	.111	.200	.111	.311	4.6	-0.9	.174	-0.2

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1897	2	1	0	1	0	1	0	17	5	6	5	0	14.0	3.21	1.643	3.21	4.11	95.4	133.8	0.2
1899	10	9	7	2	1	9	1	69	27	14	44	4	79.0	3.08	1.051	5.01	3.32	86.2	125.1	1.4
1900	29	22	8	13	0	16	2	176	55	55	130	3	208.7	2.37	1.107	5.61	2.75	74.3	155.8	4.6
1901	31	30	14	16	0	26	0	249	84	75	172	5	251.3	3.01	1.289	6.16	2.84	86.9	108.7	3.8
1902	33	27	24	7	0	26	3	224	63	64	210	7	276.3	2.05	1.042	6.84	2.42	66.0	178.7	8.2
1903	39	38	21	16	0	34	4	274	88	85	302	3	324.0	2.44	1.108	8.39	1.89	61.8	125.3	4.9
1904	46	46	25	19	0	39	8	307	69	91	349	5	383.0	1.62	1.039	8.20	1.67	62.8	164.4	8.1
1905	46	34	27	10	0	27	7	231	54	90	287	5	328.7	1.48	.977	7.86	1.82	68.8	179.1	8.0
1906	43	34	15	17	0	22	8	221	67	92	196	1	272.7	2.21	1.148	6.47	2.21	81.1	123.2	4.5
1907	44	33	19	13	0	20	7	234	68	73	232	2	284.7	2.15	1.078	7.33	1.73	67.2	119.7	3.7
1908	43	36	19	14	3	25	5	223	60	90	232	0	285.7	1.89	1.096	7.31	1.66	71.0	123.3	4.4
1909	31	28	11	14	0	16	5	204	58	57	141	1	220.3	2.37	1.185	5.76	1.94	80.0	102.3	1.7
1910	10	2	3	1	1	0	0	31	13	11	16	1	33.0	3.55	1.273	4.36	2.76	112.9	69.0	-0.2

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

410

1,137

1,066

172

RBI

300

.1614

OBP

.1975

SLG

.2186

OPS

.4161

Pitching

G (P)

407

340

235th-most career GS

193

143rd-most career W

143

195th-most career L

261

68th-most career CG

SHO

19th-most career SHO

2,961

148th-most career IP

SO (P)

2,316

56th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

803

253rd-most career BB allowed

ERA

2.161

11th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.1019

25th-lowest career WHIP

K/9

7.04

205th-highest career K/9

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB
1908-08-09	BOS @ BAL Gameday	4	1	2	1	0	1	3	6
1902-08-11	ATH @ DET Gameday	5	1	3	0	1	0	0	5
1904-07-27	DET @ ATH Gameday	4	1	3	1	0	0	0	4
1901-05-05	PIT @ CHC Gameday	4	0	2	0	1	0	2	4
1902-08-30	ATH @ CWS Gameday	4	1	2	0	1	0	2	4

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1905-09-05	ATH @ BOS Gameday	12.1	4	3	0	7	17	0
1908-09-20	MIN @ BAL Gameday	10.0	5	1	0	5	17	0
1902-07-09	ATH @ BOS Gameday	17.0	11	2	2	1	16	1
1904-04-21	NYY @ ATH Gameday	12.0	4	2	0	3	16	0
1908-07-29	ATH @ BAL Gameday	9.0	8	4	0	2	16	0

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

Hall of Fame, 1946 (Old Timers)

1× Pitching Triple Crown

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.