Virgil Oliver Trucks (born April 26, 1917) is a former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. From 1941 through 1958, Trucks played for the Detroit Tigers (1941-1943, 1945-1952, 1956), St. Louis Browns (1953), Chicago White Sox (1953-1955), Kansas City Athletics (1958) and New York Yankees (1958). He batted and threw right-handed. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama.

[edit] Career

In a 17-season career, Virgil "Fire" Trucks posted a 177-135 record with 1534 strikeouts and a 3.39 ERA in 2682.2 innings pitched. Trucks had an excellent pre-war minor league career (1938-41). He threw 4 no-hitters in the minors and still holds the American Baseball strikeouts in a season record of 418 strikeouts (1938). He struck out another 30 batters in the playoffs.

Trucks is also the uncle of Butch Trucks, a founding member of the legendary group, the Allman Brothers Band. Trucks' great nephew, Derek Trucks, is also currently a member of the Allman Brothers Band and fronts his own band, The Derek Trucks Band. In addition, several of Trucks' other relatives are accomplished musicians.

[edit] Best season

• 1953 - 20-10, 149 SO, 2.93 ERA, including eight straight victories.

[edit] Highlights

• Twice made American League All-Star team (1949, 1954)
• Fifth in American League MVP vote (1953, behind Al Rosen, Yogi Berra, Mickey Vernon and Minnie Miñoso)
• Led AL in strikeouts (1949 [153])
• Twice led AL in shutouts (1949 [6], 1954 [5])
• While with the Tigers in 1952, Trucks had a 5-19 record; however, two of those victories were no-hitters, both by a score of 1-0, against the Washington Senators (May 15) and New York Yankees (August 25), joining Johnny Vander Meer, Allie Reynolds and Nolan Ryan as the only major league pitchers to accomplish this feat in a single season
• During his minor league career, set a record with 418 SO in a single season (1938) and also pitched four no-hitters.
• Trucks had been out of the Navy less than two weeks before his start in the second game of the 1945 World Series. The leagues waived the rule requiring players to have been on the team's roster by September 1 to qualify for post-season play, because of the circumstances of World War II. He defeated the Cubs in that game.
• As of 2009, Trucks is the oldest living pitcher to have thrown a Major League no-hitter.

[edit] See also

• 1945 Detroit Tigers season
• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins
• List of Major League Baseball strikeout champions
• List of Major League Baseball no-hitters
• Trucks is one of a very small number of pitchers to be traded in the midst of a season, in recent history, where he would eventually win 20 or more games. In 1953 Trucks went 5-4 for the St. Louis Browns (AL) before being traded to the Chicago White Sox (AL) where he went 15-6 for an overall season record of 20-10. A more recent example in this category woukld be Rick Sutcliffe's 1984 season where he began the season with Cleveland-AL and was traded to Chicago-NL and won a combined 20 games between the two teams (and two leagues) during that season.

[edit] Sources

• Baseball Library
• Baseball Reference