Strikeout King

Pitcher Ron Necciai, 19, of the Class D Appalachian League, looks like a refugee from a basketball team. As he unwinds his lanky (6 ft. 5 in., 185 Ibs.) frame on the pitcher's mound, his earnest contortions have a fatal fascination for batters. They can't seem to keep their eyes on the ball. In his first pitching start for the Bristol (Tenn.) Twins this year, Necciai struck out 20 men. He struck out 19 in his second game. In a relief role, he struck out 11 men in four innings. Last week, mixing a crackling fast ball with a dazzling curve, Pitcher Necciai (pronounced Netch-Eye) made a new mark for the record books of organized baseball.

For inning after inning, as batters gaped in slack-jawed amazement, Righthander Necciai smacked strike after strike into the catcher's glove. Some batters went down with their bats on their shoulders; others, swinging wildly, hit nothing but air. One batter did manage to nick the ball enough for an easy roller, and was thrown out by the shortstop. By the end of the eighth inning only three batters had reached first--one on a base on balls, one hit by a pitched ball, the third on an error. In the meantime, Necciai had struck out every other batter, 23 in all.

In the ninth inning, he struck out the first two batters. Then he zipped a third strike past what should have been the last batter. Under official scoring rules, it was the 26th strikeout, but the game was not over: the catcher had let the third strike get through him and the batter beat his throw to first. The passed ball gave Necciai a chance to become the first man in baseball history to strike out 27 men in a regulation nine-inning game. Unruffled by the catcher's error, Necciai did it.

A Pittsburgh Pirate farmhand, Necciai was naturally jubilant about his record,* but he modestly figures he's still a few years away from the big leagues. The

Pirates, thrashing around in the National League basement (5-24) at week's end, figure Necciai may be playing in the majors sooner than he thinks.

. . .

The American League Detroit Tigers, also in last place (7-19), got a boost too last week, this one from an older hand. Virgil Trucks, 33, who had failed to finish his first four 1952 starts and had not won a game all season, pitched the major leagues' first no-hitter of the year against the second-place Washington Senators.

*Previous record. 25 strikeouts by Clarence ("Hooks") lott, for Paragould in the Northeast Arkansas League in 1941. After two failures with the St. Louis Browns, lott finished his major-league career in 1947 with a 3-8 record with the New York Giants. Major-league strikeout record: 18, by Cleveland's Bob Feller in 1938.

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