Description
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Nap Rucker
Born: September30, 1884 Crabapple, Georgia
Died: December 19, 1970 (aged 86) Alpharetta, Georgia
Bats: Right
Throws: Left
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 190 lbs.
Positions: Pitcher
Played For:
Brooklyn Superbas/Dodgers/Robins(1907–1916)
Biography:
Rucker threw a no-hitter against the Boston Doves on September 5, 1908 . He led the National League in complete games (27), innings pitched (320.1), and shutouts (6) in 1910. His best year was 1911, when he won 22 games for the Dodgers. He holds the Brooklyn Dodgers record for the most shutouts in the National League (38); most strikeouts (16) in a regulation nine-inning game, and the most 1-0 shutouts (3) in a 154-game season. He became strictly a knuckleball pitcher when his speed declined.
The son of a former Confederate soldier, George Napoleon Rucker was born on September 30, 1884, in Crabapple, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. As a red-headed youth he worked as a printer’s apprentice, and one day he was given a headline to set in type: “$10,000 FOR PITCHING A BASEBALL.” That moment, Rucker always claimed, was when he decided to become a pitcher. He joined a local semipro team and caught the eye of the Southern League’s Atlanta Crackers, who signed him on a trial basis. Years later, Bill Nye, the famous bodyguard to presidents Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, claimed he was the scout who recommended Rucker to Atlanta. Nap pitched his first professional game on September 2, 1904, but was farmed out to Augusta at season’s end.
After his baseball career, Rucker went on to a successful business career, and served as mayor of Roswell from 1935 to 1936, and as the city’s water commissioner after his mayoral term. Rucker was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1967. Rucker died in Alpharetta, Georgia in 1970 and was interred in the Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Roswell, Georgia.
More info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nap_Rucker
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ruckena01.shtml
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/22be16b1
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