Rube Bressler

Who was Rube Bressler?

Raymond Bloom "Rube" Bressler was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1914 to 1916 and Cincinnati Reds from 1917 to 1920, before being converted to an outfielder and first baseman for Cincinnati from 1918 to 1927, the Brooklyn Robins from 1928 to 1931 and the Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals in his final year of 1931. The first two teams he played for made it to a World Series, the 1914 Philadelphia Athletics lost to the miracle Boston Braves, while the 1919 Cincinnati Reds won against the scandal-tainted Chicago White Sox.

Bressler was born in Coder, Clinton County, Pennsylvania and grew up in nearby Flemington, Pennsylvania. He played for a company team at Renovo, Pennsylvania where he worked in a railroad shop before being recruited by Earle Mack, son of Connie Mack after beating Earle's All-Stars in a local game in 1912.