While we never thought Virgil Trucks' nickname of "Fire" was that creative, we did believe that the Alabaman was a pretty good Pitcher in his day.

Trucks Strikeout numbers may not be that impressive today, but for his day, he was one of the most capable flamethrowers in Baseball.  The righthander played the first two-thirds of his career with the Detroit Tigers.  In Detroit, he had five seasons in which he posted at least 14 wins and was an All-Star in 1949, when he went 19-11 and led the American League in Strikeouts with 153.  Trucks helped Detroit win the 1945 win the World Series, winning his lone start in their championship over the Chicago Cubs.

Trucks was traded from Detroit before the 1952 season to the St. Louis Browns, where he had a strange season, as St. Louis traded him in June that year to the Chicago White Sox.  In his combined year in St. Louis and Chicago, he went 20-10 with a 2.93 ERA and a fifth-place MVP finish, his highest ever.  Trucks was an All-Star again in 1954, with a 19-12 record and a 2.79 ERA.  He played until 1958 with another stop in Detroit, Kansas City, and the New York Yankees.

He would leave the game with a record of 177-135 and 1,534 Strikeouts.  Trucks was in the top ten in SO/9 and SO/BB ten times, and after he left the game, he lived a long life, finally passing in 2013 at the ripe old age of 95.   That sounds like a great life to us! 

There is a trope in all sports where athletes have been described as making the most of their limited athletic skills.  Eddie Stanky certainly fits this bill.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our pre-2021 revision of our top 50 New Orleans Saints Team of all-time.

As for all of our top 50 players in football we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NFL. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

This is our first revision after our inaugural unveiling, only one new entry.

There are two new additions to our top fifty, and a couple of significant climbs.  As always, we present our top five here.

1. Drew Brees

2. JahrI Evans

3. Rickey Jackson

4. Willie Roaf

5. Pat Swilling

You can find the entire list here.

Running Back, Alvin Kamara, rocketed up from #30 to #20.  

Offensive Lineman, Terron Armstead climbed from #38 to #35.

The two new entries are both new, and both likely should have been included last year in our first Top 50 list.

Right Tackle, Ryan Ramczyk, enters the list at #37.

Left Guard, Andrus Peat, makes his first appearance at #40.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

“Happy” Jack Stivetts made his big league debut back in 1889 for the American Association's St. Louis Browns.  It was an exciting rookie year: he finished with a 12-7 record but led the league in ERA (2.25), ERA+ (186), FIP (2.93), WHIP (1.153), and SO/BB (2.10).  

In theory, that was his best year, but Stivetts had a lot more statistical accomplishments.  Stivetts was with the Browns for two more years, posting records of 27-21 and 33-22, which were more than decent in an era when pitchers were few and far between in the starting rotation.

Stivetts would join the Boston Beaneaters in 1892, winning 61 Games in his first five years there, and he aided Boston in winning the early incarnation of the World Series against Cleveland.  He would suffer arm fatigue in 1897 and was out of the majors two years later, but he had an excellent record of 203-132 over his career. 

Stivetts was also a good hitter and often played in the Outfield.  With his bat, Stivetts posted a .298 Batting Average with 593 Hits with 35 Home Runs.