Early Life
Bob Ewing was born on April 24, 1873 as George Lemuel Ewing in New Hampshire, Ohio. He grew up on a farm in Auglaize County where as a young boy, he pitched potatoes against a target on a barn. The nickname Long Bob came about due to him being 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m). Later he would be given the moniker of 'Old Wapak', in reference to the town he called home.
Bob started his baseball career at a relatively late age, 24, before signing his first contract. Long Bob played his first fame away from New Hampshire in 1895 at the Wapakoneta fairgrounds. He came played for Wapakoneta from 1896 to 1897.
Ewing's first semi-pro experience was in August 1897, when he joined the Toledo Mud Hens team in the Interstate League. His professional debut with a 9–4 victory over Springfield, OH. He was consistently the best pitcher in the league, going 21–9 and 25–13 in consecutive seasons. Over the next three seasons, Ewing pitched nearly 900 innings and won more than 20 games annually for Toledo.
In 1901, he next went out to Kansas City in the Western League where he went 21–5 and led the Western League in winning percentage. With Ewing, the Blues won the pennant by 10 games. Ewing later recalled that Kansas City was "...the only pennant winning team I ever played on."
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)