Sport: Pitcher at the Well

An old baseball adage holds that a traded player always does better with his new club. No player in recent years has proved the rule so remarkably as Virgil (“Fire”) Trucks, a 34-year-old fireballing righthander currently keeping the Chicago White Sox on the New York Yankees’ heels.

Last year, working for the doddering Detroit Tigers, husky (6 ft., 195 Ibs.) Trucks pitched a pair of no-hitters; but he had a miserable season, losing 19 while winning only five. He was about ready to give up baseball. A midwinter trade sent him to the St. Louis Browns. Trucks promptly improved to a 5-4 record with St. Louis. Six weeks ago he was traded to the White Sox. Since then he has won eight straight (including three shut-outs), compiling an astonishingly low earned-run average of 1.83. Last week he was finally beaten 2-0, mainly because the White Sox did not score any runs for him.

Pitcher Trucks knows that his new success is not just the result of a change in scenery. He gives most of the credit to Chicago Manager Paul Richards, a former catcher whose knowledge on the handling of pitchers is as deep as a well. Richards trained Trucks to change his grip on the “change-up” pitch, i.e., his slow ball, and to abandon his sidearm delivery for an overhand motion. Says Trucks: “I never thought I’d be learning a new pitch in my sixteenth year in baseball, but it’s a good one. Kinda like a screwball.”