Another Edition of… From The Lighter Side!

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Jimmie Foxx Photo Gallery
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Another Edition of…

From The Lighter Side!

Jimmie Foxx once hit a ball into the third deck of the left-field stands at Yankee Stadium, a very rare feat because of the distance and the angle of the stands. Lefty 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!”

Here we see the great slugger scratching his head, trying to figure out how his scrawny young teammate named Ted Williams generates all his power! He can quite figure it out…and, quite frankly, looking at William’s’ biceps, I’m wondering the same thing! How did he manage to hit 521 home runs with those arms??

“Double X” Jimmie Foxx, on the other hand, blessed with the physique of a blacksmith, is commonly regarded as one of the strongest ball players ever. Gomez once famously said of him in 1937: “Jimmie Foxx has muscles in his hair!” He was unquestionably one of baseball greatest sluggers.

In a career that spanned 20 seasons with the Athletics (1925-’35), Red Sox (1936-’42), Cubs (1942, ’44), and Phillies (1945),  the nine-time All-Star hit .325, with 2645 hits, 458 doubles, 534 home runs (19^th all-time), 1922 RBIs (8^th all-time), 1751 runs (22^nd all-time), .428 on-base percentage, .609 slugging average (4^th all-time), and 4956 total bases (21^st all-time). His career OPS+ mark of 163 is 10^th on the all-time list and places him well above his contemporaries (100 is major league average).

Foxx had 30 or more home runs in 12 consecutive years and 100 RBIs in 13 consecutive years. He was a star on three pennant winners (1929-31) and two World Series championships (1929 and ’30). Foxx was a two-time American League batting champion (1933 and ’38), a three-time MVP (1932, ’33, and ’38), a four-time home run champion (1932, ’33, ’35, and ’39), and a Triple Crown Winner (1933).

Jimmie had many outstanding seasons, but his best may have been 1932, his first MVP year, when he hit .364 and led the American League in all the following categories: home runs (58), RBIs (169), runs (151), slugging (.749), on-base percentage (1.153), OPS+ (201), and total bases (403). As great as this season was, he followed it was his Triple Crown year in 1933. In 18-post season games with the A’s from 1929-1931, Foxx hit .344 with four home runs, and 11 RBIs.

“The Beast,” Foxx’s nickname, fit his batting style, but not his personality. “He was a murderous hitter but too nice for his own good,” says famous baseball photographer George Brace, who got to know Foxx well. “He would always tip us, and everybody else. He was way too generous with his money.” Foxx ended up managing a women’s baseball team and died nearly broke in 1967. He was a first ballot selection to the Hall of Fame in 1951. 

-Gary Livacari

Photo Credit: “Classic Baseball Photographs'” by Donald Honig; the George Brace Baseball Photo Collection, the Boston Public Library collection, and from Google search;
Information from the same sources mentioned above, and the Jimmie Foxx Wikipedia page.

Statistics from the Jimmie Foxx page on Baseball-Reference. 

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