Virgil Trucks,
who spent 17 seasons as a pitcher in the major leagues and served in
World War II, passed away Saturday March 23 at a hospital near his home
in Calera, Alabama, according to his daughter Carolyn Beckwith. He was 95.
Trucks was signed by the Detroit Tigers in 1938 and immediately posted a record setting season, striking out 418 batters for their Class D team in Andalusia, Ala. He earned the nickname “Fire” from an Alabama sportswriter for his blazing fastball that he used to tear through hitters at the lower levels of minor league baseball. He rapidly ascended the ranks of the Tigers minor league system and was in a major league uniform at the end of the 1941 season.
Trucks was signed by the Detroit Tigers in 1938 and immediately posted a record setting season, striking out 418 batters for their Class D team in Andalusia, Ala. He earned the nickname “Fire” from an Alabama sportswriter for his blazing fastball that he used to tear through hitters at the lower levels of minor league baseball. He rapidly ascended the ranks of the Tigers minor league system and was in a major league uniform at the end of the 1941 season.
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| Virgil Trucks / Author's Collection |
Trucks spent the majority of his career with the Tigers, pitching two no-hitters in 1952, which ironically accounted for two of his five wins that season. The Tigers, looking to go with a younger staff, traded Trucks to the St. Louis Browns at the end of the year. He would later play for the Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Athletics, and New York Yankees, before finishing his major league career in 1958. He pitched briefly in the minor leagues in 1959 and barnstormed with his good friend Satchel Paige in the off-season.
“I was living in Kansas City, Missouri when I retired and so was Paige," said Trucks in a 2009 letter to the author. "He had a friend that booked some games and he called me to go with him and I accepted. Most players barnstormed after the season because we could make enough money to live off of until next season.”
He finished with a career record of 177-135 that included two All-Star appearances in 1949 and 1954. He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1974. In 2004, he published his life story, "Throwing Heat: The Life and Times of Virgil Trucks," with co-authors Bill Bozeman and Ronnie Joyner.
The Alabama native remained a popular figure with fans throughout his retirement, spending countless hours responding to every fan mail request. He often replied with hand written letters to those who sought correspondence.
“[I receive] 20 or 30 [a week], sometimes more," Trucks told the Birmingham News in 2009. "That's just letters. It doesn't count baseballs and pictures they send. I don't like to keep the stuff around. If I wake up and can't go back to sleep, I'll go answer my mail in the middle of the night.”
His daughter Beckwith said that his fans kept him energized well into the later innings of his life.
“He has always adored his fans,” she said to the Shelby County Magazine in 2012. “When I was little, I would help him sort through his fan mail. … He always made it a point to reply to every single one.”