Morgan County Profiles

Amos Wilson Rusie

     Baseball, the great national pastime, had an early and important super star whose roots were in Morgan County. Born May 30, 1871, in Mooresville, Amos Wilson Rusie, became a fireballing pitcher for the Indianapolis team before rising to stardom with the New York Giants. He became the idol of America's baseball-loving youth. There was no place better for stardom than New York.
     Rusie was colorful and flamboyant, staging one of the first significant player holdouts in history. He was so sure of his value that it was apparent to competitors, so much so, that other owners pitched in and together gave the pitcher his equivalent salary while he sat out an entire season.
     It is said Rusie's fastball was the genesis for changing the distance between the mound and home plate. Originally 50 feet, it was, so the story goes, changed to the present and enduring 60 feet 6 inches, when the powers that be heard swears, and sworn statements, from batters that they could not see the ball at all while Amos was on the mound.
     Rusie was treated royally by the populace of New York City - and he seemingly earned it. He won 20 games in 8 consecutive years. Four times, the Mooresvillian won 30 games, and his 345 strike outs in a National League season was a record that endured a half century.
     His stardom gone in later years, Rusie was brought back to the Polo Grounds, the site of his greatest triumphs, by Giant owner-manager John McGraw, as a sort of showcase Chief Custodian, and was cheered by the crowds.
     Before dying in a car crash in 1942, the "Hoosier Thunderbolt" was engaged in salmon fishing, somewhat removed from the sunny days of victory and strikeouts at the Polo Grounds. But his memory is preserved "up state" where he is enshrined at the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown.

By Ken Griffin

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