When Rube Waddell signed with his final team, the Virginia (MN) Ore Diggers of the Northern League, a reporter from The Duluth News-Tribune tracked him down at the team’s hotel in Duluth:
“’I am just as good as when Connie Mack found me.’
“Thus spoke George Edward Waddell, better known as Rube in the world of peanut eaters, pop drinkers and umpire roasters, as he sat in a big leather arm chair in the Hotel Lenox lobby. The reporter had trouble spotting the former star slab-man of the Athletics, who is now a full-fledged member of Spike Shannon’s Virginia Ore Diggers. A glance at the hotel register disclosed the name ‘G. E. Waddell.’ Then a careful survey of the rainy-day loungers discovered a big, lanky individual, the center of an admiring group, unrolling tales of the diamond between puffs of a perfectly good cigarette.
“When he learned the newspaper’s mission, the Rube waved the others away gently to one side, enclosed our mitt in his big and famous left lunch hook, and began a rapid-fire discourse.
with a jitney in the pot. Say, I have had two attacks of pneumonia and blood poison all within three months!’ And the big fellow fished out another pill and lighted it from the stump of the late departed one.”
Cartoon of Waddell that appeared with the original story
Waddell’s first game with Virginia was rained out:
“’Gee, I am sorry it rained and spoiled the game, but I was in hopes it would clear up so I could try my new fishing tackle. I hear this is a great country for fishing, and believe me; I am going to find out how the steams around here will produce. But I guess I will try my skill at pool this afternoon. I can beat them all at pool. I am going down to the bowling alley before I leave this town and show up a few of the local cracks, too.
Waddell told the paper he was surprised to have been sent to the Northern League by the Minneapolis Millers’ Joe and Mike Cantillon in the spring:
“’I was weak as a cat. Then I began to feel old-time form and I said:’
“’Mike, I’m ready to join the club.’
“’Why, you belong to the Northern League,’ he told me, ‘Now what do you think of that?’ ‘Had the contract all signed up and didn’t say anything to me. It made me pretty sore. Everyone got the impression that I was going back. There is nothing to it. My arm is in good shape and I can pitch just as good a game as any of the big fellows today. Why, I had offers from every Federal League club in the country.”
Rube Waddell
Waddell said he was excited about the future of the Northern League:
“There is a great opportunity for the Northern League. The clubs are playing good baseball. Well, I am contented, and I am going to like it fine. I have known Spike Shannon for years. Well, I am off now to play pool.’”
The paper predicted:
“Waddell will be a big drawing card in the Northern League. That is certain—if he stays here.”
Waddell only stayed another five weeks, he pitched his last professional game on June 28; he was dead the following April.
Baseball History Daily 