page_title: Jimmie Foxx
section_title: Philadelphia Athletics
hierarchical_section_title: Jimmie Foxx / Major league career / Philadelphia Athletics
caption_attribution_description: English: 1933 Goudey Baseball Card of Jimmy Foxx of the Philadelphia Athletics #29. PD-not-renewed.
context_page_description: James Emory Foxx, nicknamed "Double X" and "The Beast", was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, and Philadelphia Phillies. His most productive years were with the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox, where he hit 30 or more home runs in 12 consecutive seasons and drove in more than 100 runs in 13 consecutive years.
  Foxx became the second player in MLB history to hit 500 career home runs, attaining that plateau at age 32 years and 336 days. For many years he held the record for the youngest major leaguer to reach 500 home runs. His three career Most Valuable Player awards are tied for second all-time. Foxx was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951.
context_section_description: The A's catching duties were already filled by future Baseball Hall of Fame member 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. That year, Foxx appeared on the cover of Time.
  In 1932, Foxx hit .364, with 58 home runs with 169 RBIs, missing the Triple Crown by just three points in batting average. Foxx actually hit 60 home runs that year, which would have tied Babe Ruth's record, but two of the home runs were hit in games that ended up being rained out, so the home runs did not count. Boston Red Sox first baseman Dale Alexander hit .367, but in just 454 plate appearances; he would not have won the batting title under current rules, which are based upon 3.1 plate appearances per team games played. Foxx did win the Triple Crown the following season, 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, 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. After a 1936 contract dispute, Mack sold Foxx's contract to the Red Sox for $150,000 (equivalent to approximately $2,763,669 in 2019 dollars).
caption: 1933 Goudey baseball card
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