Nap Rucker

[daves_resale_shop]

Geez... I feel like this is a Felix Hernandez thread... .500 record with a good era in the deadball era is just not enough... there are several others who are more deserving statistically...

But I do give him kudos for being one of the only former major leaguers to show up at cobb's funeral...

[Runscott]

Very nice to see this thread. Nap Rucker is one of my favorite players of the T206 era, but I think with discussions like this, it's important to consider how the player was viewed by his contemporaries, and also how he was viewed shortly after his career ended. What I've found with Rucker (I also collect his 'stuff') is that the sportswriters during his playing career viewed him as a guy who wasn't all that great in the big games. But after his career, he was viewed as an excellent pitcher who got screwed by playing for such bad teams.

I would vote 'no', but I still love the guy.

[CMIZ5290]

By the way, i think this was agreat thread too and i am in need of his portrait....hope someone can help me out

[bigtrain]

I agree he didn't have enough full seasons but 38 shutouts is pretty impressive. Wonder how many games he lost 1-0.

[Bridwell]

Being the best pitcher on an awful team, he also had to duel against the opposing team's best pitcher. So the opponent was Matty, M. Brown, G. Alexander, S. Sallee, H. Camnitz, E. Ruelbach, etc. Tough to win 50% against those guys!

[wonkaticket]

Great card Leon.

[dougscats]

As a Brooklyn Dodgers afficionado, the Napster is a favorite of mine.

He was Cobb's roomate in the SALLY [?] League, by the way. My favorite anecdote is an apocryphal one, and clouded by 50 years of memory, but this is the story I recall:

One day on the mound, Rucker got blasted and was yanked early. Back at the boarding house, he soaked in a hot tub. When Cobb returned home, he pulled Rucker, fighting, out of the tub.
'What the hell's wrong with you?' or something to that effect, exclaimed the stunned Nap.
'You don't understand,' Cobb purportedly said, 'I just have to be first--'

You'll have to forgive any inaccuracies of recollection.

And sorry to say, in my opinion, Nap Rucker does not belong in the Hall.
If he were in, you'd have to open the gates to a few hundred more,
and there are already too many as it is.

Doug