George Edward Waddell won 193 games as a major league pitcher. A hard-throwing lefthander in the early 1900s, he allowed barely two runs for every nine innings he pitched.

But history remembers him as a head case.

Various books have him leaving stadiums mid-game to chase passing fire trucks. Once, a game’s first pitch was delayed because he stood outside the ballpark shooting marbles with some kids.

Legend had it that he once poured a bucket of ice water over his pitching arm before a game, insisting his speed that day posed a threat to the catcher.

Mr. Waddell earned one of the most colorful and fitting nicknames in baseball history.

Rube.

Rube is thought to derive from the proper name Reuben, which an etymology dictionary hails as a 19th-century reference to “a conventional type of name for a country man.”

The word claims kinship to hick and hayseed, not far afield from bumpkin and yokel.

In Missouri, maybe a few folks have been described with one of these names. A robust St. Joseph once served as the jumping-off point for the settling of this nation, a place of replenishment for easterners wanting to find a place for themselves in the west.

In more recent times, the part of the nation between New York and Los Angeles, the media and entertainment capitals, gets dismissed as terrain to be looked down upon from 35,000 feet while waiting for the drink cart to roll by.

We live in what people with microphones and airtime call “the fly-over states.”

This phrase made an appearance last week on an MSNBC show called “Morning Joe.” Its entertainment reporter, Courtney Hazlett, had news about Michelle Obama’s plan to host “The View.” She explained the importance of this.

“It attracts a lot of the people in all of those fly-over states who really do sit down and watch this show every day from beginning to end,” she said.

Middle America satisfies itself with 23-hour days, the remaining time spent with Barbara Walters and company.

Also from Ms. Hazlett:

“There is a huge part of this country I think we sometimes forget about that really does let their day turn on these television programs, and they take what these women at America’s breakfast table have to say very seriously.”

Part of the country that “we sometimes forget about?” Seriously?

Does she think the 2,800 miles between JFK and LAX are made up of banjo-pickers, dirt people and “View” disciples?

For the record, Ms. Hazlett took the MSNBC job after a stint with OK! magazine. Also for the record, the most recent edition of OK! had a cover story about Charlie Sheen’s last wedding.

Thing is, her work is better than most. Most people who trade in celebrity gossip have the depth of a Petri dish. By comparison, Ms. Hazlett’s reports play like “Masterpiece Theatre.”

But she gave light to the dirty little secret they can’t keep concealed in television studios: The people there look down on the people here.

One more thing for the record: Middle America produced Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Georgia O’Keeffe, Bob Dylan, Johnny Carson and Walter Cronkite. Not bad for fly-over territory.

Ken Newton’s column runs on Sunday and Tuesday.