Primary Position: Starting pitcher
Birthplace: Morganton
First, Middle Names: Woodrow Earl
Date of Birth: March 9, 1916 Date and Place of Death: April 18, 1983, Valdese, NC
Burial: South Mountain Baptist Church Cemetery, Morganton
High School: Morganton High School
College: Did Not Attend
Bats: L Throws: R Height and Weight: 6-2, 185
Debut Year: 1939 Final Year: 1944 Years Played: 4
Teams and Years: Boston Red Sox, 1939-41; Boston Braves, 1944
Career Summary
G W L Sv ERA IP SO WAR
33 6 6 0 5.06 117.1 42 0.5
Woody Rich had all the makings of a great Depression-era newspaper hero. He was a shy farm boy from the hills of North Carolina – the kind of kid sportswriters ended up calling “Rube.” He had come out of nowhere with lightning in his right arm. Before he had even thrown a ball in a regulation, big-league game, the sports scribes primed the pump by comparing him to the legendary pitchers of yore. The lanky string bean, it seems, was being groomed to take his place among the pantheon of star athletes who had been born and had lived on the sports pages – Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Seabiscuit. Times were tough, and readers thirsted for heroes.