#117 Virgil Trucks - Detroit Tigers

Virgil Oliver Trucks
Detroit Tigers
Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  198
Born:  April 26, 1917, Birmingham, AL
Signed:  Signed by the Detroit Tigers as an amateur free agent before 1938 season
Major League Teams:  Detroit Tigers 1941-1943, 1945-1952; St. Louis Browns 1953; Chicago White Sox 1953-1955; Detroit Tigers 1956; Kansas City Athletics 1957-1958; New York Yankees 1958
Died:  March 23, 2013, Calera, AL (age 95)

With the exception of the year he missed while serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Virgil Trucks spent every season between 1938 and 1974 in professional baseball either as a top starting pitcher in the American League, as a coach or as a scout.  Trucks helped the Tigers win the World Series in 1945 and while he only appeared in one regular season game, he started two games of the Series pitching a complete game in Game 2.  He was an All-Star in 1949 when he went 19-11 with a 2.81 ERA for the Tigers, while leading the league in strikeouts with 153.  In 1952, he threw two no-hitters - against the Senators on May 15th and against the Yankees on August 25th.  He won 20 games in 1953 and went back to the All-Star Game in 1954 as a member of the White Sox.  Trucks went 19-12 with a 2.79 ERA that season, leading the league with five shutouts.  Over his 17-year big league career, Trucks went 177-135 with a 3.39 ERA and 1,534 strikeouts, a mark that's currently 204th on the all-time list.

Following his playing days, Trucks won his second World Series ring as a coach with the Pirates in 1960.  He'd later serve as a roving scout for the Pilots, Braves and Tigers, retiring from baseball in 1974.

Building the Set
October 7, 1988 in Millville, NJ - Card #117
A few days after my 15th birthday and adding the cards of Ray Moore (#43), Dean Stone (#87) and Jake Martin (#129) to our set from (most likely) the baseball card show held inside the Millville YMCA, my Dad and I went to Brokell's baseball card store and bought this Trucks card for $4.  This would have been on a Friday, and my best bet here is that my Dad and I needed some cardboard therapy after the school week, so we headed to the lone baseball card store in Millville at that time, located on High Street.  My Dad and I frequented this store, and this was one of four cards for our 1956 set we purchased from Brokell's that year.

As an eighth grader in 1988, I realized the need to start tracking these cards as my Dad and I added them to our set.  I wanted a record of where and when and how much we had paid for each card, and so I created a tracking schedule using our very sophisticated Commodore 64.  This was a complicated process, involving typing out the checklist, printing the checklist, taking those pages to the library and using the photocopier to shrink the size of the pages, and then rubber cementing the pages to another piece of paper.  I have two pages similar to the one shown here for this tracking exercise, which I seemingly quickly abandoned soon after finishing this arts and crafts project.  Eventually, my tracking got even more sophisticated as I graduated to a word processing document on our new Commodore 128.

The Card / Tigers Team Set
The action shot is impressive, as it appears to show the veteran Trucks covering first base on a play.  This is also only the fourth green-orange color bar combination in the set so far, following Gene Freese (#46), Jose Santiago (#59) and Chuck Stobbs (#68).  I'm assuming Trucks had an exclusive contract with Bowman, as this is his first Topps card since his appearance in the 1953 Topps set.

The back of the card has his birth year off by two years.  The cartoon highlights pay respect to his two Major League no-hitters, his four minor league no-hitters and his proficiency as a strikeout pitcher.

1956 Season

Trucks returned to his original team when the White Sox traded him on November 30, 1955 for Bubba Phillips.  The most veteran player on the Tigers' roster, Trucks used his new knuckleball to try to stay effective but injuries limited his playing time.  He appeared in only 22 games, making 16 starts and going 6-5 with a 3.83 ERA.  He was wild too, with 63 walks to 43 strikeouts over his 120 innings pitched.  Following the 1956 season, Trucks' reunion with the Tigers ended when he was part of an eight-player trade with the Athletics on December 5th.

1949 Bowman #219

1952 Topps #262

1953 Topps #96

1957 Topps #187

1959 Topps #417

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1949 Bowman #219
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6):  1952-1953, 1956-1959
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2011 Topps Lineage Autographs #RA-VT

58 - Trucks non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 9/16/20.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database

In some cases, the first and last cards listed above are subjective and chosen by me if multiple cards were released within the same year.  Most recent mainstream card may also be subjective and does not include extremely low serial numbered cards, buybacks or cut autograph cards.

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Set Order: #116 Eddie O'Brien - Pittsburgh Pirates / #118 "Nellie" Fox - Chicago White Sox

Order Collected: #129 "Jake" Martin - Pittsburgh Pirates / #135 Mickey Mantle - New York Yankees