The Main Event

  • July 17, 1903 – Rube Waddell beat the Browns 4-1 at Columbia Park, allowing eight hits in a game that took just 1:40 to play. That same day he was arrested for assaulting a heckling fan; Connie Mack posted his bail.

Some leads write themselves, and July 17, 1903, is one of them. Rube Waddell, the Philadelphia Athletics’ brilliant and thoroughly unmanageable left-hander, struck out 12 St. Louis Browns hitters and shut them down 4-1 at Columbia Park. Then, before the day was over, he vaulted a railing, ran up three rows of grandstand seats, and broke a heckler’s nose. Waddell was baseball’s original chaos agent, and July 17 might be the single most Waddell day in Waddell’s career.

The heckling that set him off

Waddell had been must-see baseball for Philadelphia fans since arriving in 1902, and that made him a target. A cluster of spectators at Columbia Park spent the entire July 17 game trying to rattle him with what one paper called “coarse epithets.” By most period accounts, a group of bettors in the crowd had money on the Browns, and Waddell’s dominance on the mound was cutting into their wager. The abuse built through the middle innings. Waddell mostly ignored it, focused on carving up St. Louis hitters, but after striking out Browns pitcher Roy Evans to end the seventh, he’d apparently had enough. He shouted back at one heckler to knock it off. The heckler didn’t.

What happened next reads like something out of a dime novel. Waddell didn’t bother with the gate near the bench; he took a running start, cleared the outfield railing, and covered several rows of seats to reach the man who’d been riding him, a known ticket speculator named Maurice Blau. An “old man” nearby got in the first punch, an uppercut that Waddell apparently shrugged off before reaching Blau, tearing at his coat, shirt, and collar, and connecting solidly enough to bloody his face. Police pulled the two apart before real damage was done, though accounts of how bad it was varied from paper to paper.

Law and Order: Baseball Version

Blau was taken into custody on the spot and held on $600 bond, a substantial sum in 1903. American League President Ban Johnson happened to be in the stands that day and made clear afterward that provocation didn’t excuse Waddell’s response. Johnson handed down a five-day suspension, calling it necessary to keep “rowdyism” out of the American League, even while conceding Waddell had been “given great provocation.”

The legal consequences though landed only on Blau, not Waddell. Waddell’s punishment was the league suspension, not a criminal charge, and he was back in an Athletics uniform within the week, beating the Washington Senators days later once his suspension lifted. It’s worth noting this wasn’t an isolated incident in Waddell’s ledger; he was no stranger to physical altercations off the field, including a much messier 1905 dispute with his in-laws in Boston that produced an actual arrest warrant, though Connie Mack‘s influence reportedly helped keep that one from ever reaching a courtroom.

Waddell’s career: a Hall of Fame arm wrapped around a chaotic life

None of this would be remembered as fondly if Waddell hadn’t been one of the most dominant pitchers of the Deadball Era. After bouncing through Louisville, Pittsburgh, and Chicago, Waddell found his footing with Connie Mack‘s Athletics starting in 1902, and it’s genuinely the Athletics, not the Phillies, who got the best years of his career. He led the American League in strikeouts six straight seasons, and his back-to-back 300-strikeout campaigns in 1903 and 1904 stood as an untouched standard until Sandy Koufax matched the feat more than six decades later. In 1905, Waddell claimed the pitching Triple Crown, leading the league in wins (27), strikeouts (287), and ERA (1.48). He finished his career with a 193-143 record, a 2.16 ERA, and 2,316 strikeouts, numbers that got him inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946.

Off the field, Waddell was as famous for his eccentricities as his fastball. He wrestled alligators in carnival sideshows between starts, chased fire trucks mid-season, and once reportedly showed up to a start with only minutes to spare. Philadelphia fans, in that specific way baseball towns fall for their flawed stars, mostly adored him for it.

Mack eventually sold Waddell to the St. Louis Browns after the 1907 season, worn down by the drinking and unpredictability that had shadowed Waddell’s entire career. He pitched three more seasons there before finishing out his playing days in the minors. Waddell died in 1914 of tuberculosis, reportedly contracted after hours spent in floodwaters helping stack sandbags, a strange, selfless footnote for a player whose legend was built on strange, occasionally alarming behavior. The July 17, 1903, incident remains one of the clearest snapshots of who Waddell was: brilliant enough to shut down a lineup, unfiltered enough to go looking for a fight in the stands the same afternoon.

Philadelphia Baseball Events for July 17

  • July 17, 1894 – Trailing 12-2 in the eighth, the visiting Boston club tried to stall for a rainout by refusing to record outs; the umpire forfeited the game to the Phillies and fans rioted, forcing police to escort the visiting players out.
  • July 17, 1918 – The Phillies and Cubs played a 21-inning game at Wrigley with Chicago winning 2-1. It was the longest game in Phillies history. Milt Watson allowed a run in the first, then held Chicago scoreless the next 19 innings.
  • July 17, 1971 – Signed minor league free agent Jerry Martin, who played 444 games over five seasons with the Phillies, hitting 19-91-.254/.318/.414 while wearing a Phillies uniform.
  • July 17. 1984 – Steve Carlton struck out eight in a 4-3 win over Cincinnati, reaching 100 strikeouts for an 18th straight season — a new NL record, tying Walter Johnson‘s major league mark.
  • July 17, 1988 – Rickey Jordan homered in his first big-league at-bat, helping beat Houston 10-4.
  • July 17, 1992 – The Phillies batted around in the sixth and scored three runs without a hit, on three walks and three Dodgers errors.
  • July 17, 2007 – Aaron Rowand hit three doubles and a homer at Dodger Stadium — his second four-extra-base-hit game in a month, an MLB first.
  • July 17, 2008 – Traded Adrian Cardenas, Josh Outman, and Matthew Spencer to Oakland for Joe Blanton, who went 4-0, 4.10 in 13 starts, helping lead the Phillies to the second World Championship in their history.
  • July 17, 2010 – Released Juan Castro, who was in his first season with the Phillies as a utility infielder.
  • July 17, 2015 – Signed free agent Erik Kratz, who spent three seasons as a backup catcher with the Phillies.
  • July 17, 2017 – Nick Fanti threw a no-hitter at Low-A Lakewood, the first winning no-hitter in team history. Fanti never reached higher than High-A – which was in Clearwater, FL in 2017 – and is currently pitching for Staten Island in the independent Atlantic League.
  • July 17, 2021 – Signed first round pick Andrew Painter.

ICYMI

Philly Baseball Birthdays for July 17

  • Charles Baker (born 1878) – Baker pitched one game and allowed seven earned runs in six innings for the A’s in their inaugural season.
  • Red Smith (born 1899) – An infielder for the 1925 Athletics.
  • Fred Chapman (born 1916) – A backup shortstop for the Athletics from 1939-1941.
  • Deron Johnson (born 1938) – Played five seasons for the Phillies (1969-1973).
  • Bobby Thigpen (born 1963) – Acquired from the White Sox in August 1993 for pitcher Jose DeLeon. In 17 relief appearances with the Phillies he posted a 6.05 ERA.
  • Marty Gair (born 2003) – Right-hander drafted by the Phillies in the 13th round of the 2023 Draft. In his second season with Clearwater he has a 5.28 ERA in 25 relief appearances.

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