Literary baseball birthdays: Marquard and Pepitone

October 9, 2010

Happy birthday, Joe. Can’t believe you’re 70 today.

The title of his book — Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud, written with Berry Stainback and published in 1975 — was perfect. He was pretty good — a three time All-Star and Golve Glove winner — but had the bad timing to be on the Yankees when the team was pretty stinko. he also became the butt of jokes because of his ego and vanity.

I remember this title because it was one of my selections from the Sports Illustrated Book Club back in the late seventies. I also acquired Nice Guys Finish Last by Leo Durocher with Ed Linn, and Babe: The Legend Comes to Life, by Creamer. As I recall, the book club didn’t last too long.

Rube Marquard, born this date in 1886 —  was another “colorful character.” He is a staple of books about the New York Giants of the John McGraw era. Larry D. Mansch chronicled his life in Rube Marquard: The Life and Times of a Baseball Hall of Famer (McFarland, 1998), but I’m sorry, I don’t get it. He had a lifetime record of 201-177 and won 20 or more games only three times. Only once hid he strike out more than 200 batters and had “just” 1,593 in 3,306.2 innings. He was elected by the Veterans Committee in 1971, so maybe that tells you something.

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Tagged as: Joe Pepitone, Rube Marquard

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