Virgil Trucks (blessed with the dueling nicknames of 'Fire" and "Dump") was a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher of the 1940s and '50s. This is his story of how he was signed:
A scout comes out to the family farm in North Carolina looking for Virgil. Daddy Trucks tells the scout his son is in the woods hunting squirrels. The scout walks down the path into the woods and finds the younger Trucks with a collection of dead squirrels -- sees the kid throw a rock at a squirrel, hitting it in the head and adding it to the collection.
The scout is understandably impressed. What a talent! What an arm! He and Virgil go back to the farm, and the scout makes his pitch. "Your son," he tells the senior Trucks, "can be the greatest left-handed pitcher in history."
The senior Trucks shakes his head. "He's right-handed," he tells the scout.
"Can't be," the baseball guy says. "I saw him hit a squirrel with a rock, and he was throwing left-handed."
"Yep," daddy says. "When he throws right-handed, he messes 'em up so bad we can't eat 'em."
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