Starting Pitcher: Jimmie Foxx?

Jimmie Foxx was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951 on the strength of his lifetime record of 534 home runs, .325 batting average. 2 triple crowns, and 3 MVP Awards.

He came up to the Philadelphia Athletics as a catcher, but became a first baseman, occasionally filling in at third, shortstop and the outfield. Oh, and he also did a little pitching. – Norman L. Macht

A cannon for an arm

It was 1945, the last of the wartime baseball seasons.

The Phillies, masquerading as the Blue Jays, weren’t fooling anybody. Even playing under an assumed name, they could still be found in the cellar all year.

Jimmie Foxx, released by the Chicago Cubs after batting just 20 times with one hit as a player-coach in 1944, had persuaded Phils general manager Herb Pennock that he could hit wartime pitching.

Pennock had just lost first baseman Tony Lupien to the Navy.

Foxx, despite weakening eyesight and slowing legs, still knew his way around first base. Besides, at 37, the sure-shot Hall of Famer was broke and needed a job.

The Phils were close to bankrupt on the field, too. They would win 46 and lose 108 that year. The Maryland Strongboy hit seven home runs for them and drove in more than his share of game-winning runs.

Like many players, Foxx had always believed he could pitch as well as some of the pitchers he faced. He fooled around on the sidelines practicing various deliveries. No doubt about it: he had a good arm.

As a catcher in high school, he had thrown line drives to the bases without even climbing out of his squat behind home plate. When he pitched, he blew away his own catcher.

And no doubt about it, the Phillies needed somebody with a good arm. When Ben Chapman replaced Fred Fitzsimmons as manager in mid-season, the pitching staff had more aches and pains than fastballs up its sleeves.

How bad was it? Anton Karl would lead the staff with nine wins, all in relief. He started twice and lost both. No starter won over seven.

Not his first rodeo on the mound

Foxx had toed the rubber once before in the big leagues, in 1939 for the Boston Red Sox. The Detroit Tigers were pummeling everybody Joe Cronin threw at them one day at Fenway Park.

Foxx volunteered to move over from first base and pitch the ninth. He set the Tigers down in order.

Finishing 1944 as player-manager at Portsmouth in the Piedmont League, he had pitched a 5-1 complete game victory.

Catcher Andy Seminick remembered the Jimmie Foxx of 1945. “He was still strong. I weighed 185, and he’d come up behind me and wrap me in a big bear hug and lift me right off the floor.

He had a tough, wiry beard. When he grabbed me, he’d rub his whiskers on my back. He was a happy, generous, joking guy to the end, but away from the clubhouse he was a loner.”

It’s uncertain whether Foxx asked Chapman for a chance to pitch or the manager suggested it. Both had the same idea: It might prolong his playing days.

Chapman, a speedy outfielder, had also turned to pitching when his legs and eyes began to work against him.

He had been 8-6 in 1943 and ’44 with the Dodgers, worked in three games for the Phillies in 1945, and pitched one inning in 1946. He sympathized with Foxx and was all for the experiment.

Starting pitcher for the Phillies

Chapman gave Foxx a chance to start an exhibition game on July 10, ironically against his old team, the Athletics.

It was one of a series of war relief games played that year between the two teams or closest rivals in each major league city.

Starting against Don Black, Foxx pitched three scoreless innings and led, 5-0, when he tired in the fourth and was knocked out as the A’s scored six times.

He walked one, struck out one and gave up six hits. He also drove in two runs. The Phillies eventually won, 7-6.

Foxx was used several times in relief after that with no decisions, giving up three runs and nine hits in 16 innings.

An outing vs the Reds

The seventh-place Cincinnati Reds were in town for a doubleheader Sunday, August 19.

The war against Japan had recently ended, and 12,326 fans turned out in a festive mood. Right-hander Hugh Mulcahy, just released by the Army, joined the team that day but was not ready for action.

The crowd stood for a minute of silence before the first game as part of a day of thanksgiving declared by President Harry Truman. Then Dick Mauney pitched a 9-hitter for a 5-0 Blue Jays win.

Chapman handed Foxx the ball for the second game. Opposing him was a big rookie right-hander, Howie Fox. Jimmie had 13 years and one x on his opponent.

The Reds, like most teams, had a patchwork lineup of retreads and temps, but they had some legitimate threats at the plate in Frank McCormick and Eddie Miller. 

Foxx had a bout of wildness in the first two innings, walking four. He was saved in the first when McCormick hit into a double play. In the second the pitcher, Fox, singled in Eric Tipton after two walks.

It was the only hit Jimmie gave up in the first six innings. Later he blamed the state of the mound for his wildness.

“It’s flat on top instead of sloping away, and it made me wild. You’re sort of pitching uphill. I tried to pitch across the knees, and the ball would wind up around the shoulders.”

After nicking McCormick with a pitch in the third, Foxx retired the next 12 in a row, striking out six. He took a 4-1 lead into the seventh. With two outs, he suddenly ran out of gas. Three singles loaded the bases.

Chapman, who had intended to take him out after the seventh no matter what, came out to the mound and waved in Karl.  As he walked off the field, Foxx received as rousing an ovation from the fans as he’d ever heard following one of his monstrous home runs.

Karl, who led the league with 67 appearances, got Steve Mesner to line to center field, then preserved the victory to give Foxx a 1-0 career pitching record.

After the game Foxx said, “I never did so much throwing in a game. I’m beginning to realize a pitcher earns his money.” He had relied on a fastball and changeup with a few screwballs mixed in.

“I was supposed to have a curve too,” he said, “but the trouble is, it don’t curve.”

Chapman heard the comment and laughed. “That was the trouble with my curve, too.”

(Jimmie Foxx started one more game, on September 2 in Boston, but switched to first base after two innings.)

Foxx’s win over the Reds gave the Phillies/Blue Jays their first three-game winning streak of the year. The next day only 950 diehards were on hand to witness one of baseball’s rarest moments: the Reds walked a pitcher intentionally to pitch to Jimmie Foxx.

With first baseman Vance Dinges out with a broken collarbone, Foxx was playing first. He hit his fifth home run in the eighth to cut the Reds’ lead to 3-2.

With men on second and third and one out in the ninth, pitcher Oscar Judd pinch-hit for second baseman Fred Daniels (Judd hit .281 to Daniels’s .200 that year).

Judd drew four wide ones to load them up and bring up Foxx, who drove a long fly over the drawn-in outfield to drive in the winning runs.

That must have been as satisfying to old Double-X as any of his other 2,645 big league hits. But being a winning pitcher in the major leagues might have meant even more.