Arthur Sleight "Rube" DeGroff (September 2, 1879 – December 17, 1955) was a professional baseball

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

from 1903 to 1916. He played two seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

. DeGroff was 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighed 190 pounds."Rube DeGroff Statistics and History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved October 26, 2011.

Career

DeGroff was born in

Hyde Park, New York Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Fra ...

, in 1879. He started his professional baseball career in 1903 with the Hudson River League's

Kingston Colonials The Kingston Colonials were an American basketball team based in Kingston, New Jersey Kingston is an unincorporated community and census designated place (CDP) along the border of South Brunswick Township in Middlesex County and Franklin ...

where he proved to be very popular. The ''

Democrat and Chronicle The ''Democrat and Chronicle'' is a daily newspaper serving the greater Rochester, New York, area. Headquartered at 245 East Main Street in downtown Rochester, the ''Democrat and Chronicle'' operates under the ownership of Gannett. The paper's ...

'' reported that "the younger element of the Hudson ver ball fields ... love him and worship him as a sort of baseball demi-god." He spent the 1903–04 offseason playing winter ball in Cuba. In 1905, he joined the

New York State League The New York State League was an independent baseball league that played six seasons between 2007 and 2012 in New York State and the New York City metro area. Over 500 NYSL players have been signed by professional teams. Players from forty-eigh ...

Troy Trojans The Troy Trojans are the sports teams of Troy University. They began playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's Division I (NCAA), Division I-A in 2001 in sports, 2001, became a American football, football only member of the ...

and had a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .315."Rube DeGroff Minor League Statistics & History"
baseball-reference.com. Retrieved October 26, 2011. DeGroff made his major league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals in September of that year, and in 15 games, he batted .250. He also appeared in one game for the Cardinals in 1906 before going back to the Trojans. That was the last time he played in the majors. In 1906 and 1907, DeGroff batted .314 for Troy. He led the league in

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014, a British compilation album s ...

during both of those seasons. DeGroff then went to the Eastern League for one year, batted .255, and returned to the New York State League in 1909 where he led all players with 10

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s. DeGroff hit under .250 in 1910 and 1911. Upon joining the

New England League The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played intermittently in five of the six New England states (Vermont excepted) between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League B ...

's Lowell Grays in 1912, however, he had one of his best years at the plate. He batted .348, setting his career-high in that category, and led the league in hits, doubles,

triples TripleS (; ; stylized as tripleS) is a South Korean 24-member multinational girl group formed by Modhaus. They aim to be the world's first decentralized idol group, where the members will rotate between the full group, sub-units, and solo activi ...

, home runs,

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at-bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at-bats for a given player, an ...

, and total bases. In 1913, his batting average went down to .299, but he paced the circuit in home runs again. DeGroff played one more season for Lowell and then two in the New York State League before his professional baseball career ended. He later managed a team in Hyde Park called the Robin Hoods. In 1936, US president

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

(who was also born in Hyde Park) attended a Robin Hoods game and told the crowd that he and DeGroff used to play on the same baseball team. On December 16, 1955, DeGroff was driving on

U.S. Route 9 U.S. Route 9 (US 9) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway in the states of Delaware, New Jersey, and New York in the Northeastern United States. It is one of only two U.S. Highways with a ferry connection (the Cape May–Le ...

to his job as a night watchman at a manufacturing plant when he was hit head-on by a driver who had been drinking. He died at the hospital early next morning, aged 76.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Degroff, Rube 1879 births 1955 deaths Major League Baseball outfielders St. Louis Cardinals players Kingston Colonials players Rochester Bronchos players Troy Trojans (minor league) players Jersey City Skeeters players Wilkes-Barre Barons (baseball) players Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Zanesville Potters players Lowell Grays players Baseball players from Dutchess County, New York People from Hyde Park, New York Road incident deaths in New York (state)