George "Rube" Deneau
George Deneau was a Canadian minor league baseball player, manager, and promoter who played on a number of Ontario and Michigan teams between 1898 and 1915. Known best by his nickname "Rube," he was born in Amherstburg, Ontario, about 20 miles downriver from Windsor, and died in 1926 at the age of 47. He was remarkably popular with fans in his day, and newspaper reports routinely refer to the teams he was on as "Deneau's Boys," "the Deneauites," and "Deneau's huskies."
Deneau was primarily a pitcher but he also did well as a position player. His lifetime batting average was.275 over ten seasons, 780 games, and 2918 at-bats. Of his 803 hits, 98 were doubles, 16 triples, and 22 home runs. Slugging percentage:.241. On-base percentage:.275.
Early Career in Windsor, 1898-1905
As early as 1898, the right-hander's play with local teams began to attract the attention of scouts. Professional offers started rolling in by 1901 from teams such as Detroit, Philadelphia, and Buffalo, but for several years he turned them all down, preferring to work in Windsor as a diver. By 1902 Deneau was pitcher-manager of the Windsors baseball team, of Windsor, Ontario. In 1903, the team won 19 of the 23 games it played against semi-professional teams all over Western Ontario and Michigan. In that same year he added to his fame when he recovered the body of a small boy who had drowned in the Detroit River; previous efforts to drag the river for the child had been unsuccessful.In 1904 he was on the Detroit Tigers payroll as a "try-out" but did not make the roster. He did get at least one paid gig with the Merrill, Michigan, team, which was in the habit of salting the line-up with professionals. After the regular season, Deneau found ways to keep playing baseball. In October he played for the amateur Crickets of Windsor's neighboring community Walkerville, and in December he helped set up an indoor baseball league for the 21st Essex Fusiliers, the forerunner of the Essex Scottish Regiment, with a team for each of the eight companies comprised by the regiment. Rube also managed, coached, and captained a regimental team, drawn from the best of the eight companies.
In the 1905 season Deneau played for three different teams. In March he re-signed with the Windsors, who the Detroit Free Press said had been the "terror" of the region for the past two years with Deneau as their "star twirler and manager." He also played for Saginaw against other Michigan teams; the Detroit Free Press reported him pitching for that team on June 21 and for Norris, the winningest team in the City League, on Sept. 18 and Oct. 4.
In December, Deneau was back to work on indoor baseball. The Free Press reported there was "a split" in the Fusiliers team and that Deneau was thinking of putting together an independent indoor team to participate in the new indoor league being planned in Detroit.
Jackson Convicts, 1906
In 1906 Deneau left Windsor for the Jackson, Michigan, based Jackson Convicts team in the Southern Michigan League — as a pitcher and for part of the season as manager. Newly formed this year by Deneau and others, Southern Michigan was a Class D league under a classification system that ran from D up to AAA. Rube played 82 games for Jackson, with a batting average of 281.Notwithstanding his Jackson perch, Deneau pitched the last three innings for Windsor's opening game in Williams Park against the Detroit Magnolias. Deneau also returned to Windsor on May 13, this time pitching a complete game for Jackson against his old team with 8 strikeouts. He also ran home on a third-baseman's error in the sixth inning and drove in the two winning runs with a triple in the ninth. Jackson took the game 7-6 in front of a crowd 400.
A bad shoulder hindered Deneau's pitching in the first half of the season, but he improved in the second. In the season finale he pitched a complete game for Jackson against Saginaw, winning 7 to 2 before 1200 fans. The very next day the Free Press announced that he had signed with the Pontiac team to play the remainder of its season.
Springfield Senators, 1907
At the end of 1906, Deneau signed for the following season with the Springfield Senators of the Class B Illinois–Indiana–Iowa League "at one of the best salaries paid a pitcher in the organization."Deneau kept up his baseball even in the dead of winter, appearing in a baseball game on ice at a Detroit skating rink in February 1907. In March the Springfield Senators were negotiating with the Detroit Tigers to acquire Henry Steiger, a left-handed pitcher to complement Deneau the rightie. But by April he had a serious problem with his pitching arm, possibly related to last year's bad shoulder. He wrote to the Free Press early in the month that it had "swelled to twice its size" and could remain a problem through the first half of the season.
Battle Creek Crickets, 1907-1908
By May 1907, Deneau was playing not with Springfield but with the Battle Creek Crickets of the Southern Michigan League, "playing any old place from catcher to first, second, third, or short." Baseball-Reference.Com's records for the Southern Michigan League list James Henderson as the manager, but Deneau must have been at least the captain: at season's end the Free Press was referring to the Crickets as "the Deneauites," noting that Battle Creek had Deneau on reserve for 1908.One blot on the Battle Creek season was the suspension of shortstop Curly Henderson on suspicion of throwing the game with a wild throw to Deneau at first. Henderson, who claimed that the ball went only a foot above Deneau's head and should have been caught, vowed never to return to Battle Creek.
For the season at Battle Creek, the Free Press reported Deneau's batting average as.275 with a fielding percentage of.976. But Baseball-Reference.Com says his batting average this year was.250,.352 slugging. The Crickets played a number of exhibition games; if the Free Press was counting those in its calculations that might explain the discrepancy. As a pitcher Rube had 15 games, won 9, lost 3. The team placed third in the league, with an average of.563.
On April 26, 1908, Battle Creek's Crickets played their first exhibition game against the Battle Creek Independents. Rube Deneau was the manager of the Crickets and had 12 players on board, including Curly Henderson, who must have had a change of heart. Deneau did not pitch this first game, but in June he was reported as the losing pitcher in a Free Press article on a game between the Crickets and Flint. As a player, Deneau earned a.288 batting average over 124 games. He pitched 19 games, winning 6 and losing 8. The team placed only 6th in the 9-team league, with an average of.496.
The Windsors, 1909
In February 1909 Deneau met with other baseball people in Michigan and Ontario about forming a Border League to comprise Windsor, Pontiac, Port Huron, Monroe, Mt. Clemens, and possibly Chatham. Deneau would play for Windsor if he could get out of his Battle Creek contract. Windsor had just built a new park that the team could use, and most of the other cities had good facilities. On Feb. 26, Deneau organized a public gathering at Windsor's Crawford House to drum up support for the league. But in April the Windsor Evening Record was reporting that "chances are not bright for the Border league." Without league membership, the Windsor team would play as amateurs. With or without league membership it would be led by Deneau as manager.On May 24, Windsor inaugurated the new park with a game against "semi-professional" Mt. Clemens, winning 6-5 in the bottom of the 9th. Deneau played first base and had two hits, one a double. In the early method of box scoring used by the newspapers of the day he was credited with 7 "outs"—apparently the catcher or first baseman was credited with the out that follows the third strike.
June 16 was Deneau Day at Wigle Park. Over 1200 fans bought tickets for a game between Windsor and the Good Lucks from Detroit, all the proceeds to go to Rube Deneau, "who is very popular in this city." Four days later with Deneau on first the team beat the Detroit Spaldings 4-0 at home, attendance 187. On July 10 Deneau pitched the second game of a series against the Old Athletics, allowing no runs after the first inning and winning the game 4-2. By July 17 his arm and his team were stronger than ever in a 19-5 rout of Detroit's Woodmere club before 314 fans. Deneau was credited with a triple. He and a player named Delaney alternated pitching and first-base duties.
On July 22 a scheduled game against the Detroit Athletic Club was cancelled because "the majority of Deneau's men are busy at the race track this week and are unable to get away to play ball." On the 28th they were drubbed by Detroit's Cass team, with Delaney and the hitless Deneau again alternating at first base and the pitcher's mound. On the 31st, they beat Detroit Business Institute 2-1, attendance 225. Deneau managed but did not play. On August 5, 4000 fans came out for a day of athletic competitions that culminated with Rube pitching a complete game against Chatham, striking out four batters and scoring two runs himself. Windsor won, 8-3. The team beat Chatham again on the morning of the 18th in a tournament at Leamington before 950 fans, with Deneau at shortstop. In the afternoon the "bulky leader" of the team was on the mound against the Detroit Athletic Club, which was beaten 8-5. Deneau struck out four and scored one of the runs.
In late August and early September, Deneau seems to have been on some kind of leave. A game scheduled for the 24th against the Detroit Athletic Club was canceled because he "finds it necessary to be out of town part of this week." Then on Sept. 12 a company team from Detroit came to Windsor "for the purpose of taking a look at Rube Deneau's slants," but he was not with the team for that game either. On the 21st, the sports page of the Free Press carried a message: "Rube Deneau is requested to call Manager Batchelor, of the D. A. C. , this evening after 7 o'clock at Main 6200."
Deneau's absences may have been due to his extracurricular work with the Saginaw Wa-was, who ended in first place in the Southern Michigan League that year. While at Saginaw he registered 24 hits on 89 at-bats for a.270 batting average. At the end of the year Saginaw businessmen took up a Christmas collection for 17 members of the team. Rube was one of them and received a check for $16.70, which at the time would have been enough to buy a new suit or overcoat.