In Philadelphia, Waddell was a smash hit, going 24-7 with 210 strikeouts despite missing the first 2 1/2 months of the 1902 season. Turning cartwheels on the field to celebrate victories, he drew such big crowds that he hastened the AL's acceptance and the NL agreed to play the first World Series -- between the Pirates and the Boston Pilgrims (Red Sox) -- in 1903.
"He was almost unhittable at his peak," said Alan Levy, a Slippery Rock University professor who wrote a book called Rube Waddell, the zany, brilliant life of a strikeout artist. "Mack called him the greatest pitcher he ever saw."
Waddell's fastball might not have been as fast as Walter Johnson's but, like Koufax, he combined it with a drop-off-the-table curveball. Fittingly, his record of 349 strikeouts in 1904 (110 more than runner-up Jack Chesbro) stood until Koufax struck out 382 in 1965.
The left-handed Waddell hurt his pitching arm while wrestling with teammate Andy Coakley before the 1905 World Series and never was the same, even though he won 64 games over the next four seasons with the A's and Browns.
He was back in the minors by 1910 and, while staying at his club owner's house in 1912, stood in icy water for days helping pile sandbags during a Kentucky flood. He came down with pneumonia and, within two years, was dead of tuberculosis.
Coincidentally or not, he was born on Friday the 13th and died on April Fool's Day.
"There was a lot written about him that wasn't true and a lot he did that wasn't written about," O'Brien said. "If there was something outlandish he didn't do, it was only because he didn't think of it."
RSS