Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Virgil Trucks, still throwing fireballs (and TTM autographs)

Congrats to William of Foul Bunt for snagging this hard-to-find Virgil Trucks rookie card, a short-printed #5 from the 1948-49 Leaf baseball set.


My own #5 takes up considerably less space, thanks to a youthful hack job (1948-49 Leaf Baseball set profile). Virgil also looks a little creepy, thanks to poor alignment of the print registers.


"Fire" Trucks (also called "Fireball" Trucks on his Leaf card) remains a ready signer for the price of a donation to his church, even at the age of 94. Foul Bunt's post adds more detail and includes a letter from Virgil.


TRIVIA: Jack Morris pitched a no-hitter for the Tigers (over the ChiSox) on April 8, 1984, the first no-no for Detroit since Jim Bunning tossed one in 1958 and Virgil threw a pair in 1952. The above video breaks down Jack's performance, complete with 80s hairstyles and not-so-subtle jabs at Ron Kittle. (B-R.com has the complete list of Tigers no-hitters, 7 in all.)

3 comments:

night owl said...

Nothing says "1984 was a long time ago" like hairstyles and television production. Fun to look at though.

William Regenthal said...

Thanks for the shoutout! I really appreciate it!

Matthew Glidden said...

You're welcome! I'm a little jealous of how nice your Leaf #5 looks. :-)