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