John Joel Rucker (January 15, 1917 – August 7, 1985), nicknamed "The Crabapple Comet," was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player, an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

who appeared in 705

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

games played Games played (GP) is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated (in any capacity); the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested. Associat ...

, 607 as a

center fielder A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the ...

, over six seasons (1940–1941; 1943–1946) for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

. The native of Crabapple, Georgia — a nephew of former Major League

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

Nap Rucker George Napoleon "Nap" Rucker (September 30, 1884 – December 19, 1970) was an American professional baseball pitcher and politician from Georgia. Rucker was a left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Superbas/Dodgers/Robin ...

— batted left-handed, threw right-handed, stood tall and weighed . He attended the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

. When he joined the Giants in 1940, he was enthusiastically hailed by the ballclub as "the new

Ty Cobb Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American professional baseball center fielder. A native of rural Narrows, Georgia, Cobb played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent ...

," as the ballclub hoped he would be just as much of a star as the Hall of Famer from Georgia. Until broken by

Pablo Sandoval Pablo Emilio Sandoval Reyes (born August 11, 1986) is a Venezuelan-American professional baseball third baseman for the Staten Island FerryHawks of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. He has previously played in Major League Baseball ...

in , Rucker's 17-game hitting streak to start the campaign was the Giants' franchise record for a hitting streak to begin a season. The skein lasted from April 17 through May 9, and Rucker batted .333 with 28 hits in 84

at bats In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens upon completion of his turn at bat, b ...

, with six doubles and two

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run ...

. It was halted on May 11, 1945, by Frank Dasso of the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...

.Information
at

Retrosheet Retrosheet is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose website features box scores of Major League Baseball (MLB) games from 1906 to the present, and play-by-play narratives for almost every contest since the 1930s. It also includes scores fr ...

During his MLB career, Rucker amassed 711 hits, including 105 doubles and 39

triples TripleS (; ; stylized as tripleS) is a South Korean 24-member multinational girl group formed by Modhaus. They aim to be the world's first decentralized idol group, where the members will rotate between the full group, sub-units, and solo activi ...

. Rucker's professional career extended from 1938 to 1952, although he sat out the 1951 season. Rucker is featured on the cover of the April 1, 1940 issue of ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' magazine.

References

External links

* 1917 births 1985 deaths Atlanta Crackers players Baseball players from Georgia (U.S. state) Jersey City Giants players Macon Peaches players Major League Baseball center fielders New York Giants (baseball) players Portland Beavers players Sacramento Solons players Seattle Rainiers players 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-baseball-outfielder-1910s-stub