Jimmie Foxx: the Pride of Sudlersville

304 Pages·2005·118.054 MB·English

by  Foxx, Jimmie;Millikin, Mark R

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