Nicknamed for his speed and rabbit-like leaps, Rabbit Maranville was always a superior fielder, famous for his unique basket catch of high infield flies. Photographers loved him. He would pull the bill of his cap over one ear - baseball's oldest comic gesture - and jump into the arms of his biggest teammate.

One time when he was on the Pirates, there was a 'no drinking' rule on the team (which was understandable considering it was against the law at the time). A teammate, Moses Yellowhorse, wouldn't pitch unless he got something to drink. Maranville summoned the infield around, pulled a flask out of his pocket, and gave the pitcher a snort.

He once took a pair of glasses out of his pocket, polished them, and handed them to an umpire. Another time (with the Cubs in spring training 1925) he was goofing around on the golf course with Charlie Grimm, who laid on his back and put a tee in his mouth with a ball on it, as a joke. Maranville hit the ball with a driver, scaring the hell out of Grimm. Another time he dove into a fishpond at the Buckingham hotel in St. Louis, and came out of the water with a goldfish in his mouth.

Once when he was in New York, he arranged for pitcher Jack Scott to chase him through Times Square shouting"Stop Thief!" Another time his teammates heard wild noises coming from within his locked hotel room; screams, gunfire, breaking glass.....the Rabbit moaning "Eddie, your killing me!" It sounded like a murder in progress! When the door was finally broken down, the Rabbit and two accomplices paraded right by his shocked teammates as if nothing happened, with the Rabbit greeting them with a "Hiya fellas!"

The first night after he became Cubs manager, he barged into the players Pullman cars and threw cold water on their faces, saying "there will be no sleeping under Maranville management". That same night he got into a fight with a cab driver in New York after the Cubs arrived there over the cabbie grumbling about his tip. He had to be separated from the cabbie by the cops. After they separated him, he went after the cops and was arrested along with two of his players. He had no set rules for the team except that they couldn't go to bed before him.

Another time he held the Cubs traveling secretary out of a hotel window by his feet. Yet another time, and as it turns out, the final incident, he ran through the train throwing the contents of a spittoon at his players. With Rabbit as manager, the Cubs finished in last place for the first time in franchise history. He was fired after eight weeks.

Rabbit played for another ten years (with Brooklyn, St. Louis and Boston), and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1954.

His real name was Walter.