American Sports History Series edited by David B. Biesel 1. Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles by James Overmyer, 1993. 2. The United States and World Cup Competition: An Encyclopedic History of the United States in International Competition by Colin Jose, 1994. 3. Slide, Kelly, Slide: The Wild Life and Times of Mike "King" Kelly, Baseball's First Superstar by Marty Appel, 1996. 4. Baseball by the Numbers by Mark Stang and Linda Harkness, 1997. 5. Roller Skating for Gold by David H. Lewis, 1997. 6. Baseball's Biggest Blunder: The Bonus Rule of 1953-1957 by Brent Kelley, 1997. 7. Lights On! The Wild Century-Long Saga of Night Baseball by David Pietrusza, 1997. 8. Windy City Wars: Labor, Leisure, and Sport in the Making of Chicago by Gerald R. Gems, 1997. 9. The American Soccer League: The Golden Years of American Soccer, 1921-1931 by Colin Jose, 1998. 10. The League That Failed, by David Quentin Voigt, 1998. 11. Jimmie Foxx: The Pride of Sudlersville by Mark R. Millikin, 1998. A related title by the series editor: Can You Name That Team? A Guide to Professional Baseball, Football, Soccer, Hockey, and Basketball Teams and Leagues by David B. Biesel, 1991 Jimmie Foxx The Pride of Sudlersville Mark R. Millikin American Sports History Series, No. 11 The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham, Maryland Toronto Oxford SCARECROW PRESS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.scarecrowpre~~.com PO Box 317 Oxford OX2 9RU, UK Copyright O 1998 by Mark R. Millikin First paperback edition 2005 All rights resewed. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available The Library of Congress catalogued the hardcover edition of this book as follows: Millikin, Mark R. Jimmie Foxx : the pride of Sudlersville I Mark R. Millikin. p, cm. - (American sports history series : no. 11) Includes bibliographical references (p. 267) and index. 1. Foxx, Jimmie. 2. Baseball playe-nited States-Bibliography. I. Title. 11. Series. GV865.F64M55 1998 796.357;092-dc21 98-14707 ISBN 978-0-8 108-5685-1 @\he paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSUNIS0 239.48-1992. Manufactured in the United States of America. This book is dedicated to William Mix (Mr. Will), my step-grandfather; my parents, Walter and Rose Marie Millikin; my children, Melissa and Luke Millikin; and my fiancee, Debbie Schaeffer. "Mr. Will" took me as a child to many Oriole games at Memorial Stadium and passed along weekly issues of The Sporting News to me for seven years. My parents always supported my addiction to baseball, and my father was my first Little League coach and took me to Fenway Park for my first major league game. My children tolerated many trips to local libraries and the National Base- ball Hall of Fame and accompanied me on some of my interviews. Debbie strongly urged me many times to continue the project, especially when I needed encouragement the most. CONTENTS Acknowledgments Prologue xiii 1 INT HE BEGINNINLGIF: EI N SUDLERSVILLE 2 THEB AKER-MACCKO NNECTION 3 As A HITTERH, E'SA NATURAL 4 OPPORTUK~NYO CKST: HEN EXTR UTH? 5 THEM ACKMEANR RIVE 6 ONEO F THE BESTB ASEBALTLE AMSE VER 7 MACK'SD YNASTY 8 Foxx CHALLENGREUST H 9 FOWA T THE TOPO F HIS GAME 10 A HOLDOUATN D A BEANING 11 Foxx RETURNTSO CATCHER AND THE BIG TRADE 12 FOXXJO INS THE REDS OX 13 Foxx MAKEAS SUPERCBO MEBACK 14 SECONTDO RUTH 15 FOXX'S TWILIGHT 16 AFTERTH E GAMEW ASO VER 17 Foxx IN BASEBALHLI STORY Bibliography Index About the Author ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I especially wish to acknowledge Barbara Everett, librarian of the SudlersvilleM emorial Library in Jirnmie Foxx's hometown of Sudlersville, Maryland. Barbara set up many key interviews for me with relatives and friends of Jimmie Foxx and allowed me to conduct the interviews at her library. She also referred me to various articles and other publications containing information on Mr. Foxx and made many initial contacts on my behalf. I thank Bill Deane, former Senior Research Associate, and Ms. Pat Kelly of the Photography Department of the National Baseball Library of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc. Bill and Scott Mundore were very helpful at various stages in clarifying what research materials were available at the library. Ms. Joanie Roach of the Calvert County (Maryland) Library System obtained various interlibrary loans for me. Librarians Valerie Taylor and Billie Houghton from Caroline County (Maryland) System supplied some historical information on early baseball played on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Dan Bunch wrote an article on my research on Jimmie Foxx's life in the Queen Anne's Record Observer in August 1991 and kindly featured an open invitation in the article for interested readers to contact me if they had additional information on Jimmie Foxx. Dan Rodricks of the Evening Sun and WBAL radio (Balti- more) aired his own essay documentary on Jimmie Foxx's life during the 1992 All-Star break; the documentary featured many excerpts from an interview Dan conducted with me. I am very grateful to the following individuals from Sudlersville and other nearby areas on Maryland's Eastern Shore who agreed to have interviews with me and gave me very useful information about Jimrnie Foxx and life on the Eastern Shore during Mr. Foxx's lifetime: Jimmie's cousins, Gladys Smith Truitt, Mattie Jarman Anthony, and William (Win- nie) Coleman; his nephew, (Samuel) Dell Foxx 111; his schoolmates Tom Gillespie and Bernard Merrick, and his friends, (Lemuel) Bo Benton, Margaret Stack, and Doris Roland Biddle. Marjorie Clements provided me with several old newspaper articles found in the former farm home of Dell and Mattie Foxx, and Ms. Loretta Walls very kindly gave me family charts