Virgil Trucks - Highlights

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 )
• Twice led AL in shutouts (1949, 1954 )
• 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 on May 15, and New York Yankees on August 25, joining Johnny Vander Meer, Allie Reynolds, Roy Halladay 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. The only other pitcher to win a post-season game without winning a regular season game is Chris Carpenter of the 2012 St. Louis Cardinals.
• One of a very small number of pitchers traded in a season during which 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.
• As of 2012, Trucks is the oldest living pitcher to have thrown a Major League no-hitter. He is also, with the death of Freddy Schmidt on November 17 of that year, the oldest living player to have played on a World Series-winning team.