Jimmie Foxx
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| Jimmie Foxx | ||
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| First Baseman | ||
| Born: October 22, 1907 Sudlersville, Maryland |
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| Died: July 21, 1967 (aged 59) Miami, Florida |
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| Batted: Right | Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | ||
| May 1, 1925 for the Philadelphia Athletics |
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| Final game | ||
| September 23, 1945 for the Philadelphia Phillies |
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| Career statistics | ||
| AVG | .325 | |
| HR | 534 | |
| RBI | 1922 | |
| Teams | ||
| Career highlights and awards | ||
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| Member of the National | ||
 Baseball Hall of Fame |
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| Elected | 1951 | |
| Vote | 79.2% (first ballot) | |
James Emory "Jimmie" Foxx (October 22, 1907 – July 21, 1967) (nicknamed Double X and The Beast) was an American first baseman and noted power hitter in Major League Baseball. Foxx was the second major league player to hit 500 career home runs, and at age 32 years, 336 days, is the second youngest ever to reach that mark, behind only Alex Rodriguez.
Although Foxx's name appears both as Jimmy Foxx and Jimmie Foxx in newspaper accounts, box scores, baseball cards, and other records, Foxx generally signed his name "Jimmie."[citation needed]
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[edit] Biography
Born in Sudlersville, Maryland, Foxx played baseball in high school and dropped out to join a minor league team managed by former Philadelphia Athletics great Frank "Home Run" Baker. Foxx had hoped to pitch or play third base, but since the team was short on catchers, Foxx moved behind the plate. He immediately drew interest from the Athletics and New York Yankees. Foxx signed with the A's and made his major league debut in 1925 at age 17.
[edit] Major league career
[edit] Philadelphia Athletics
The A's catching duties were already filled by future Hall of Famer Mickey Cochrane, so by 1927, Foxx was splitting time between catching, first base, and the outfield. In 1929, installed as the A's regular first baseman, Foxx had a breakthrough year, batting .354 and hitting 33 home runs. In 1932, Foxx hit 58 home runs. He followed up in 1933 by winning the Triple Crown with a batting average of .356, 163 RBIs, and 48 home runs. He won back-to-back MVP honors in 1932 and 1933.
Foxx was one of the three or four most feared sluggers of his era. The great Yankee pitcher Lefty Gomez once said of him, "He has muscles in his hair." In 1937 Foxx hit a ball into the third deck of the left-field stands at Yankee Stadium in New York, a very rare feat because of the distance and the angle of the stands. Gomez was the pitcher who gave it up, and when asked how far it went, he said, "I don't know, but I do know it took somebody 45 minutes to go up there and get it back."
When the Great Depression fully hit in the early 1930s, A's owner Connie Mack was unable to pay the salaries of his highly paid stars and was obliged to sell off a number of them. In 1936, Mack sold Foxx's contract to the Boston Red Sox for $150,000 following a contract dispute.
[edit] Boston Red Sox
Foxx played six years in Boston, including a spectacular 1938 season in which he hit 50 home runs, drove in 175 runs, batted .349, won his third MVP award, and narrowly missed winning the Triple Crown. In 1939 he hit .360, his second all-time best annual batting average. His 50 home runs would remain the single-season record for the Red Sox until David Ortiz hit 54 in 2006.
[edit] Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies
Foxx's skills diminished significantly after 1941. Some sources attribute this to a drinking problem, while others attribute it to a sinus condition. He split the 1942 season between the Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, playing mostly a reserve role. He sat out the 1943 season and appeared only in 15 games in 1944, mostly as a pinch hitter.
He wound up his career with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1945, filling in at first and third, pinch hitting, and even pitching nine games, compiling a surprising 1-0 record and 1.59 ERA over 22 2/3 innings. Interestingly, the man who was so often called the right-handed Babe Ruth throughout his career was the opposite of Ruth in this regard as well. Ruth began his big-league career as a pitcher; Foxx ended his big-league career as one.
Foxx finished his 20-year career with 534 home runs, 1922 runs batted in, and a .325 batting average. His 12 consecutive seasons with 30 or more home runs was a major league record until it was broken by Barry Bonds in 2004. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951; his plaque shows Foxx wearing a Red Sox cap. At the end of his career, his 534 home runs placed him second only to Ruth on the all-time list, and first among right-handed hitters. He retained these positions until Willie Mays passed Foxx for 2nd place in 1966.
In 1999, he ranked number 15 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
[edit] Post-baseball career
A series of bad investments left Foxx broke by 1958. He worked as a minor league manager and coach after his playing days ended, including managing the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Tom Hanks' character Jimmy Dugan in the movie A League of Their Own was largely based on Foxx and Hack Wilson, although the producers took a number of liberties in creating the role.
Foxx served as head coach for the University of Miami baseball team for two seasons, going 9-8 in 1956 and 11-12 in 1957.
[edit] Death
Foxx died at age 59 in Miami, Florida, apparently by choking to death on a bone. He is buried at Flagler Memorial Park in Miami, Florida. A statue of Foxx was erected in his hometown on October 25, 1997.
[edit] Cultural references
Foxx is mentioned in the poem "Lineup for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash:
| Lineup for Yesterday | |
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| X is the first Of two x's in Foxx Who was right behind Ruth With his powerful soxx. |
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| — Ogden Nash, Sport magazine (January 1949)[1] | |
[edit] See also
- List of Major League Baseball Home Run Records
- 500 home run club
- 50 home run club
- List of Major League Baseball RBI Records
- List of MLB individual streaks
- Top 500 home run hitters of all time
- Triple Crown
- List of Major League Baseball home run champions
- List of Major League Baseball batting champions
- List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Baseball Almanac. Retrieved on 2008-01-23.
[edit] External links
- Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
- Biography at The Baseball Biography Project
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