Baseball’s ‘Forgotten’ Super Slugger

[michael3322]

Just wanted to call out a wonderful SABR article written by Tom Ferraro

Jimmie Foxx: Baseball’s ‘Forgotten’ Super Slugger

"Foxx is the greatest batsman in major league baseball today. There’s no question about that. He’s a swell fellow—well-liked by the players and the fans. In fact, he’s such a nice kid, I was kind of sorry for him when he came so close to the record and missed.”
- Babe Ruth

Lifetime Stats
Batting average .325
Hits 2,646
Home runs 534
Runs batted in 1,922

Career highlights and awards
9× All-Star (1933–1941)
2× World Series champion (1929, 1930)
3× AL MVP (1932, 1933, 1938)
Triple Crown (1933)
2× AL batting champion (1933, 1938)
4× AL home run leader (1932, 1933, 1935, 1939)
3× AL RBI leader (1932, 1933, 1938)

It is still hard to believe that someone with this stat line got into the HoF on his 7th ballot, instead of earlier!



Oddly, both he and his wife died in the same bizarre way - by choking on food.

"Foxx died in 1967 at age 59 in Miami, Florida. He became ill while eating dinner with his brother and was taken to a hospital where resuscitative efforts failed. An autopsy showed that Foxx had choked on a piece of food. The year before, Foxx's second wife, Dorothy, had also died of choking." Wikipedia

And finally a card...

[Casey2296]

Nice post and thanks for the reminder, Foxx has always been under appreciated much like Mel Ott, I think it was the strange 30!s-40's era that seems to get lost on how good these guys were.

[Exhibitman]

The Beast...29th all time in WAR for position players (92.2). I think he gets lost because he was Lou Gehrig's contemporary (113.76 WAR in three fewer seasons).

[DeanH3]

A Beast indeed. Very under rated. Did he actually break Babes record in 1932 due to his "lost" Home Runs? We will never know but it's cool to ponder.

[brianp-beme]

Here is my favorite scan of a Foxx card, where Jimmie takes second billing (if being on the right is considered second billing) to Hall of Fame player Joe Cronin on this Double Play card.

Brian

[doug.goodman]

Scored program from his 34th HR of the season (336th career) on the August 23, 1936 in the first game of a doubleheader at Yankees Stadium. He knocked in all 3 runs the Red Sox managed to score that day while the Yankees scored 5 with the help of Gehrig's 40th of the year and rookie Joe DiMaggio's 22nd.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Forgotten? Ridiculous.

Outside of the hugest names in the game's history, I'd hardly expect somebody not interested in the subject matter to know every single former superstar. Foxx is no exception. Everyone with the slightest interest is very much aware. They also wouldn't know Walter Johnson, Matty, etc., and are only familiar with Wagner due to the card. <--- Oops, just named some of the biggest names in the game's history! So, they'd know Ruth for being a great player. Chances are more likely they know Gehrig due to his affliction rather than his talents.

[tiger8mush]

ready for battle

[Seven]

Will gladly post my card contributions to the Jimmie Foxx thread once I get home. "The Beast" is definitely overlooked. Doesn't help that his direct competition, and greatest 1st basemen of all time, Lou Gehrig, played during the same time he did. Foxx was also very versatile. Had stints playing 3rd base, Catcher and even pitched a few times towards the end of his career.

He captured a triple crown and was a three time MVP, which in my opinion was even more impressive considering the time he played in and how the MVP was voted on back in his day. It's a shame that his health issues torpedoed his career as he had a very legitimate shot at Ruth's all time home run record.

He's also is criminally undervalued in our hobby, in my amateur opinion.

[BabyRuth]

A group of foxes are called a leash, skulk or earth.
Here is my skulk!!!!

[Beercan collector]

Originally Posted by michael3322

It is still hard to believe that someone with this stat line got into the HoF on his 7th ballot, instead of earlier!

What the heck ?

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by tiger8mush

ready for battle

Used to own an autographed version of this pose but on a different card (I think it was called a leather finish? BCornell kindly helped me identify the issue many years ago.)

[MikeGarcia]

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