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

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

, 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 cat ...

who appeared in 705

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

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. Basebal ...

, 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 c ...

, 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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

. The native of

Crabapple, Georgia Centered today at the crossroads of Georgia Highways 140 and 372 (also known as "the Silos area"), Crabapple, Georgia, is one of the oldest parts of Fulton County, Georgia. Originally part of Cherokee County, Georgia, (created 1832), Crabapple wa ...

— a nephew of former Major League

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

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

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

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

. 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 Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder. He was born in rural Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the las ...

," 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 Olmecas de Tabasco of the Mexican League. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants, ...

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 during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

, 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 i ...

. It was halted on May 11, 1945, by

Frank Dasso Frank Joseph Nicholas Dasso (August 31, 1917 – June 8, 2009) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Cincinnati Reds during the 1945 and 1946 seasons. Early life Dasso was born on August 31, 1917, in Chicago, Illinois. He w ...

of the

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

.Information
at

Retrosheet Retrosheet is a nonprofit 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 from every major ...

During his MLB career, Rucker amassed 711 hits, including 105 doubles and 39 triples. 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 is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' 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 outfielders New York Giants (NL) players Portland Beavers players Sacramento Solons players Seattle Rainiers players {{US-baseball-outfielder-1910s-stub