A Park Ridge native who entertained thousands at minor league baseball games with the lovable nerd character he dubbed Myron Noodleman is being remembered as a “comic genius.”
Rick Hader died Nov. 1 at age 59 of cancer in Tulsa, Okla., said his brother Matt Hader, a Deerfield resident.
Rick Hader, who graduated from Maine South High School, created Myron Noodleman in the 1990s and found a home in minor league baseball stadiums with his “cool nerd” act, becoming the self-proclaimed “Clown Prince of Minor League Baseball.”
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“He really struck a chord with minor league baseball fans,” Matt Hader said of his brother. “In Major League Baseball, there’s no goofing around. But in the minor leagues, he was a perfect fit.”
A high school math teacher in Tulsa, Rick Hader worked on the weekends and after school to perfect his Noodleman charcter, who was known for his prominent front teeth, thick, dark exaggerated eyebrows and bow tie. He marketed the character as a mix of “Groucho Marx, Pee-wee Herman, the Nutty Professor and Urkel.”
At one point, Rick Hader performed as Myron Noodleman at 70 minor league baseball games, two dozen basketball games and a handful of corporate events in a single year — prompting him to leave teaching and focus on his crowd-pleasing act full time, Matt Hader said.
“His act was unique because not only would he clown around with the players, coaches and umpires but then he would go up into the stands and ad lib with the fans,” Matt Hader said of Myron Noodleman. “He would target people who were skeptical of his act, and he would turn them into fans in seconds.”
Dennis Bair, who played for the Chicago Cubs organization as a minor leaguer in the 1990s, said watching Rick Hader perform as Myron Noodleman was one of the highlights of his baseball career.
“He was hilarious,” Bair said. “As a starting pitcher, I would get to sit on the bench in the dugout four nights out of five with my buddies and just watch him in the stands. We wouldn’t even be paying attention to the game — we were watching him.”
Rick Hader as Myron Noodleman was never mean spirited, and always made the targets of his ribbing feel good, Bair said.
“He was one of the best,” Bair said. “A comic genius. There will never be another one like him. He was a true original.”
When the Great Recession hit, bookings for Myron Noodleman slowed down and Rick Hader decided to return to teaching, always relying on humor to reach even the most uninterested kids, Matt Hader said.
“He would make a trip to the grocery store an adventure,” Matt Hader said, noting that a love of entertainment runs in his family. A screenwriter and novelist, Matt Hader is the uncle of Bill Hader, the actor and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member.
Even when he was suffering from the aggressive form of cancer that would prove fatal, Rick Hader was still entertaining the crowd of dozens of friends and family members who would visit.
“He was goofing around all the time,” Matt Hader said of his brother. “People gravitated to him. That’s how he’ll be remembered.
Hader is survived by his wife, Kim; three children, Amanda Hader Katomski, Madison Suppes and Ethan Suppes; his father, Arthur Hader; and six brothers and a sister.
The family set up a online fundraiser to help cover the cost of Rick Hader’s medical treatment at gofundme.com/myron-noodleman-benefit.
Heather Cherone is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. Jennifer Johnson contributed.